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A HISTORY of 
ELIZABETHTOWN, KENTUCKY 

AND ITS SURROUNDINGS 



BY 

SAMUEL HAYCRAFT 

n 

(fTritten in 1869) 



PUBLISHED BY 

THE WOMAN'S CLUB of ELIZABETHTOWN, KY. 

1921 






COPYRIGHT. 1921, BY 
THE WOMAN'S CLUB of EUZABETHTOWN. KY. 



Alio 16 i':.:^! 0)CU622445 



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PRELIMINARY NOTE 

Samuel Haycraft's "History of EHzabethtown and Its Surround- 
ings" was published in the EHzabethtown News in 1869 and republished 
in 1889-90. The preservation of this history through its publication in 
the News is a happy occurrence, for in no other way would much of the 
early history of the town have been accurately preserved. 

Mr. Haycraft was a son of one of the three pioneer settlers of the 
town, and was born when the town was still an early pioneer settlement. 
At the time of his death he had lived here 83 years, and he was the 
only remaining citizen whose life went back to the town's earliest days. 
EHzabethtown is now 140 years old, and it will not be long before no 
one will be left whose interest in the town's history is quickened by per- 
sonal memory of its early inhabitants. When that time comes, tradi- 
tions will rapidly grow vague, and the knowledge of its early history and 
characters will be lost. On account of facts like these the Elizabeth- 
town Woman's Club undertook the publication of Haycraft's History 
in book form. The original suggestion of this came from Mrs. William 
Allen Pusey, of Chicago. There are many EHzabethtown people both 
at home and abroad to whom the town is dear and who are interested 
in preserving its history. When this matter was proposed to them 
there was a gratifying response which has enabled the club to proceed 
with the undertaking. 

Quite aside from local interest and personal feelings there are other 
good reasons for the publication of this work. It is an exceedingly in- 
teresting document, particularly in the vivid description which the writer 
gives of pioneer customs and conditions. The author loved the town 
and its early history, and he describes it in vigorous style and with a 
quaint sense of humor. He was little disturbed in his writing by the 
laws of composition, but his descriptions flow on easily, and the reader 
is never uncertain as to what he is trying to say. The original copy has 
been reproduced without any effort at alteration or correction. A few 
chapters, composed of material not really a part of the history of the 
town and its surroundings, have been omitted. 



The history ends abruptly with a short sketch of Ben Hardin which 
it was evidently intended to continue. It is to be hoped that the 
example of this history will stimulate some later public spirited citizen 
to continue the history of the town down to the present day. 

For the privilege of publishing this history the Woman's Club is 
indebted to Mr. H. A. Sommers and the other owners of the Elizabeth- 
town News and takes pleasure in expressing here its obligations to them. 

The Woman's Club of Elizabethtown, Ky. 

Miss Lillie Goldnamer, 
Miss Emily Payne, 
Miss Margaret Stewart, 
Mrs. W. H. Robertson, 
Mrs. J. R. Selby, 
Mrs. R. W. Gates, 
Mrs. R. B. Park. 

Committee. 



' ■ 




Samuel Haycraft 
Taken in Sc-pt. 1877, »'» ^'-^ ^3^ J'"^'' 




Sarah B. Haycraft 
Taken in 1872, in her 73d year 



SAMUEL HAYCRAFT 

Samuel Haycraft was born August 14, I795> in Elizabethtown, Ken- 
tucky, in a double, round-log cabin. His father was Samuel Haycraft, 
a Revolutionary soldier, and a man of great public and private worth, 
who settled in Kentucky early in the latter quarter of the eighteenth 
century. His mother was Margaret VanMeter, daughter of Jacob Van- 
Meter, and belonged to one of the old and honorable pioneer families 
of the State. The subject of this sketch, one of the most remarkable 
men who ever lived in Elizabethtown, spent nearly seven years of his 
boyhood in the country schools, the last two chiefly in studying the 
Latin language. He was a careful, discriminating, and extensive reader, 
and few men of the country were so thoroughly and universally well in- 
formed. His long public career commenced when he was fourteen years 
of age. At that time, in October, 1809, he began to write in the office 
of the County and Circuit Clerk, Major Ben Helm. The duties of this 
position he performed, with little variation, until 1816, when he re- 
ceived the appointment of Clerk of both Circuit and County Courts of 
Hardin County, and held this clerkship, uninterruptedly, until 1857. 
He said of himself, "That, from the time he entered this office, he was 
attentive to business, and never neglected it ; but, in leisure moments, 
was fond of gay and lively company, particularly of dancing parties, 
but hardly ever descended to low company or rowdyism, but was a wild, 
wicked sinner." On retiring from this office, in 1851, the court and bar 
adopted, and placed on record, resolutions in every way flattering to 
him in his official capacity, as well as social and private relations of life. 
He, then, began the practice of law at the Elizabethtown bar; but 
after four years of legal practice, was again called by the people to fill 
the vacant clerkship of the Circuit Court, caused by the death of the 
incumbent. In 1857 he was elected to represent the people in the State 
Senate and held this position for four years. He was, therefore, a 
member of the Legislature during the most important and critical period 
of the State's history. His record made in that body was most honora- 
ble to himself, and, in the light of the present, is stamped by a wisdom, 
foresight, and fearless devotion to just and true principles, of which 

7 



any man might well be proud. He was instrumental in enacting some 
measures beneficial to the general good; and it was through his efforts, 
mainly, that the Legislature was induced to appropriate even the meagre 
sum it did for the erection of a monument to Daniel Boone. And, in 
that body, he was one of the most determined and staunch supporters of 
the Union. He was then sixty-seven years of age, and had lived with 
his father through the greater part of the life-time of the nation, and 
now stood in the Senate, gray with time and honor, one of the noblest 
Romans of them all, ever readyto say, "The Union must and shall be 
preserved." But neither in that august body nor among his friends and 
neighbors at home, was he ever obnoxious in his opinions ; on the con- 
trary, however, conciliatory, generous and discriminating, claiming 
only to himself his private opinions, and deeply sympathizing with the 
troubles of his neighbors and the evils and misfortunes of the times. 
He was again elected Clerk of the Circuit Court and retired in 1868, at 
the age of seventy-three, after an unparalleled service of sixty-five 
years. He said of himself that "On the first Saturday in April, 1832, 
my wife and I were baptized by Elder Warren Cash, who also married 
us ; and, in answer to my mother's prayers, she lived to see all her 
children in the Church, and to hear her youngest son preach the Gospel." 
For over forty years he was a member of the Baptist Church, a teacher 
in the Sabbath-schools and observed family prayers twice a day. For 
several years he was a Trustee of Georgetown College, to which he 
made some bequests. Of himself, he says: "I have occupied the same 
seat in church for over forty years, and never sit back in the scorner's 
place. On the 29th of October, 1818, I was married to Sarah Brown 
Helm, a daughter of Judge John Helm, of Breckinridge County. I 
regard the transaction as the most fortunate move of my life, tem- 
porally speaking." They had four children : Edgar H., DeSoto, Iowa ; 
Sarah M., wife of S. McMurtry, Hardin County ; Louisa Ann, wife of 
William Dix, Breckinridge County; and Margaret J., wife of C. D. 
Poston, once Representative in Congress from Arizona. Mr. Hay- 
craft was a fine public speaker and one of the most interesting conversa- 
tionalists. His disposition to joke was inveterate and a vein of humor 
seemed to underlie the most serious moments of his life. He was a 
man of fine address, most genial temperament, courteous manner and 
splendid personal appearance; and few men of his age showed such 



high preservation of all the noble elements of manhood. He stood as a 
monument of the efifects of correct principles and practices of life, both 
physically and mentally. Yet he modestly said : "My life has been 
rather quiet and monotonous, and does not afford much matter for 
history, especially of an extraordinary character." 

He evidently found pleasure in composition on subjects which were 
of interest to him ; these were especially the pioneer times and 
people, his church, and religion. He not infrequently wrote letters to 
the Louisville papers, and was an occasional contributor to religious 
publications. In Ford's Christian Repository of May, 1875, pp. 350 to 
361 he has an autobiography. In the same of October, 1875, PP- 276 to 
285 there is a sermon by him. 

This history was probably suggested to him by an investigation 
which he made and embodied in a very interesting "Letter to the 
churches comprising the Salem Association of L'nited Baptists" read 
at Big Spring meeting house September 22nd, 1871. Although read after 
the publication of his history, the context shows that it was prepared 
in 1843. 

His wife died August 14th, 1878. They had been married 60 years, 
lacking two months. To her he repeatedly paid tribute throughout his 
career, and she was as much of a character in the town as he was. A 
gentle, generous, pious woman of the old generation she was "Aunt 
Sallie" to the whole community. Many of us still remember her agree- 
able peculiarity of always having on hand "sweet cakes" for distribu- 
tion to the children who came to her house. She and her husband lived 
in the fine square colonial brick house that stood on the northeast corner 
of Main and Poplar Streets, the first brick house erected in Elizabeth- 
town. Two magnificent magnolia trees stood on either side of the 
portico. It was a house of character, and it was a loss to the town 
when it was destroyed by fire about 1882. 

He followed his wife to the grave in his 84th year on December 
22nd, 1878, four months after her death. 



COPY OF A LETTER WRITTEN PRIOR TO LINCOLN'S 
ELECTION TO PRESIDENCY 

Following is a letter which came into the possession of Mrs. W. H. 
Courtney, Owensboro, Ky., written by Lincoln to Hon. Samuel Hay- 
craft, grandfather of Mrs. Courtney, just prior to his election in i860: 

Springfield, 111., Aug. 16, i860. 
Hon. Samuel Haycraft, 

Elizabethtown, Ky. 

My Dear Sir : 

A correspondent of the New York Herald, who was here a week 
writing to that paper, represents me as saying I have been invited to 
visit Kentucky, but that I suspected it was a trap to inveigle me into 
Kentucky in order to do violence to me. 

This is wholly a mistake. I said no such thing. I do not remember, 
but I possibly did mention my correspondence with you, but very cer- 
tainly I was not guilty of stating or intimating a suspicion of any 
intended violence, deception, or other wrong against me by you or any 
other Kentuckian. 

Thinking this Herald correspondence must reach you, I think it due 
to myself to enter my protest against this part of it. 

I scarcely think the correspondent was malicious, but rather that he 
misused what was said. 



Yours very truly. 



A. Lincoln. 



CHAPTER I 

Having been requested by you to furnish my recollections of Eliza- 
bethtown, I clieerfully comply with your request. Although born in it 
seventy-four years ago, in order to furnish a history of the town and 
its founders, I shall be compelled to draw a little upon tradition, running 
back to the fall of 1779, in order to give a just idea of the kind of men, 
their mode of life, etc., who first came to the valley in which the town 
is situated. My father and mother being among the very first, enables 
me to speak with some certainty, as I received it from them. 

Elizabethtown is situated in Hardin county, on the southern slope 
of Muldraughs Hill, and Severn's \^alley creek, a branch of Nolin, 
which empties into Green river. The town is ten miles southwest of 
the Beech and Rolling Fork of Salt river, forty-two miles from Louis- 
ville, by the Louisville and Nashville railroad, and forty-five miles by 
the way of the Louisville and Nashville turnpike road, and those two 
roads cross at right angles in Elizabethtown. 

The valley took its name from John Severns, an early adventurer, 
who, being attracted by the beauty of the location, entered land, and 
gave the name to the creek and valley. The head waters of Valley 
creek, and Rawlings' fork, each about three or four miles long, form 
a junction in the town, where it takes the name of Severn's Valley creek. 
This beautiful stream, in its course downward, is fed by Shaw's creek, 
Billy's creek, East and West Rhude's creeks, and by numerous never- 
failing springs of limpid water, cool and refreshing. About eight miles 
below town it disembogues into the stream of Nolin. The whole stream 
is about twelve miles long. The valley through which it runs varies 
from two to seven miles wide. The greater part, particularly that por- 
tion surrounding the town, was originally a dense forest of heavy tim- 
ber. Poplar, walnut, sugar maple, wild cherry, hackberry, plum, etc.. 
and various other growths, and undergrowths of spice wood, leather 
wood, etc., indicating the richest soil. The greater portion of this 
beautiful and fertile valley was taken by John Severns, Andrew Hynes, 



Thomas Helm, Joseph Stover, Jacob Funk, Claudius Paul Raguet, 
Osburn Spriggs, John Handley, Jacob Harris, and others not now 
remembered. It was then in Jefferson county, and belonged to the old 
mother of States, Virginia — afterwards it was divided and became 
Nelson county. 

On the 1st day of June, 1792, Kentucky was made a State by the 
consent of Virginia; and in 1793 Hardin county was founded, bounded 
by the Ohio river. Salt river. Rolling fork to Salt Lick, striking across 
the hills to Green river, and down the- river to the Ohio, embracing all 
the counties of Hardin, Meade, Breckinridge, Davies and Ohio, and the 
great parts of Hart, Grayson and part of Edmonson. 

About the fall of 1779 and winter of 1780, the early settlers were 
Captain Thomas Helm, Colonel Andrew Hynes and Samuel Haycraf t ; 
each of these persons built forts with block houses. The forts were 
stockades, constructed of split timber — then deemed sufficient for de- 
fense against the Indian rifles. The sites were well selected, each on 
elevated ground, commanding springs of never failing and excellent 
water. 

The forts formed a triangle, equidistant a mile apart. Captain 
Helm's fort occupied the hill on which Governor Helm's residence now 
stands. Colonel Hynes' was on the elevation now occupied by J. H.. 
Bryan, formerly by Ambrose Geoghegan. Sen., and for many years by 
John H. Geoghegan, Esq. Haycraft's fort was on the hill above the 
Cave spring, in which the flesh of many a deer, buffalo and bear were 
preserved for use, as salt in these days were not to be had. There were 
no other settlements at that time between the falls of the Ohio and 
Green river. Those forts were subject to frequent attacks by the 
Indians. The report of a gun at either of these forts was the signaf 
by which the other forts were warned of the danger and summoned to 
the aid of the beseiged fortress, which was promptly responded to. 
Alany were the inroads made by savages upon the infant settlements 
at that early period. Soon after a hardy set of adventurers came in and 
settled around the forts, consisting of the Millers, Vertreeses, Van- 
meters, Harts, Shaws, Dyers, &c., who assisted in repelling the attacks 
of the Indians. Many deeds of daring valor were performed by those 
sturdy pioneers. It cost some blood. Henry Helm, son of old Captain 
Thomas Helm, was killed ; also Dan Vertrees, the honored grandfather 



of Judge \\ . D. Vertees, our fellow-citizen. Dan Vertrees was a stal- 
wart young man of daring. He, with the late Colonel Nicholas Miller 
and others, were pursuing a band of Indians ; Miller, then young, was 
tall, slenderly built, as active as a cat, and as fleet as hind, and as brave 
as Julius Caesar. This company coming upon the Indians, suddenly, 
a desperate fight ensued. \'ertrees was killed at the first fire. A stout 
warrior seized a white man, wrestled his gun from him and was about to 
cleve his head with an axe. Miller at that moment, with a celerity of 
action which few men could equal, and with a power tliat few possessed 
— in the language of John Glenn, "snatched the while man from the 
Indian as he would a chicken from a hawk," and, with an equal rapid 
motion, killed the Indian : This turned the tide, and the remainmg 
Indians fled, leaving several dead on the ground. 

Miles Hart, while defending his domicile with an open door, spring- 
ing from side to side, loading and firing, and keeping at bay a band of 
savages for a considerable length of time, was finally killed, and his wife 
and two children taken prisoners. It may not be uninteresting to note 
a circumstance showing the capability of endurance possessed by those 
early settlers. Mrs. Elizabeth Hart, the widow of Miles Hart, was 
regarded as a very delicate woman for those days. She was enceinte 
when taken a prisoner — in an advanced state. She was burdened with 
camp kettles and other Indian plunder ; they crossed the Ohio river into 
the Northwestern territory. After journeying a few days, at nightfall, 
she was compelled to kindle the Indian fires, and then made to go aside 
and kindle a fire for herself, raking up as best she could rubbish from 
under the snow, and there alone, unaided by the kind assistance known 
to civilized life, was delivered of a son. The squaws then showed a little 
kindness in the morning, by giving her a little water in which a turkey 
had been boiled. Then cutting a block from a tree, they wrapped a piece 
of blanket around the new-born infant, fastened it to the block, and laid 
the block upon her back with camp kettles, &c.. and pursued their way, 
and, in the course of a day, waded a river waist deep, and yet, strange to 
tell, she experienced no serious inconvenience but from hard usages and 
inhuman treatment, the child died at six montlis old. 

She lingered in captivity and wretched slavery for several years, 
until a trading Frenchman at Detroit purchased her from the Indians, 
and restored her to her relations. She afterwards married and raised 

13 



a considerable family. Bailey T. Price, Mrs. Thomas Tabb, and Mrs. 
John Tabb, are her grand children, and now live among us. 

Another instance to show the hardships of the people of those days : 
On the 25th day of December, 1780, the late Benjamin Helm, Esq., then 
a lad of fourteen years of age (son of Captain Thomas Helm), walked 
barefooted to the falls of the Ohio (now Louisville) for meal' or salt. 
Mr. Helm afterwards lived to an advanced age, over ninety years ! 
He died some years ago, a wealthy and highly esteemed old gentleman, 
of the old school, having spent a life of sobriety, honesty and industry' 
having filled the offices of Circuit and County Court Clerks many years,' 
and various other respectable stations, and was justly considered a' 
benefactor in the community; built the Methodist Church here almost 
unaided, and died a member of it— a true Christian. 

On the 17th day of June, 1781, under the shadow of a green sugar 
tree, near Haynes' station, a Baptist church was constituted with 
eighteen members, by Elder William Taylor and Joseph Barnett, 
preachers, with Elder John Gerrard, who was ordained first pastor.' 
The church was called the Regular Baptist Church of Severn's Valley. 
The same church still exists in Elizabethtown and is known by the name 
of the United Baptist Church of Jesus Christ, called Severn's Valley, 
and is now the oldest Baptist church that maintains an existence in 
Kentucky. All the members and preacher emigrated from Virginia, 
and Elder Gerrard might have been emphatically styled, "the voice of 
one crying in the wilderness." 

This man of God was only permitted to exercise the functions of 
his office for nine months. For in common with his friends he was 
compelled to seek the game of the forest for a living, and being with a 
hunting party they were surprised by a band of Indians, all except Elder 
Gerrard made their escape, he being lame, was taken, and whether he 
was slain outright, burnt at the stake, or lingered in captivity was never 
known, and like Moses the place of his sepulchre is not known to this 
day. He left a family and his decendants, the Millers and Thomases, 
are among us to this day. The elder and younger Jacob Vanmeter and 
the wife of the elder were in the original constitution of the church. 
The decendants of the first Jacob Vanmeter now number upwards of 
3,000 and are scattered over nearly all the States of the Union. He was 
my grandfather; he died on the i6th day of November, 1798, and was 

«4 



buried on his own farm, now owned by George Strickler. A plain stone 
of sand rock now marks the spot, the letters on it all legible, though of 
seventy years' standing. 

CHAPTER II 

Church going folks of the present day who make it a point to appear 
in their best attire at the public religious services might feel some 
curiosity to know how our ancestors appeared on such occasions and 
I hope they will not blush at the description. 

I received my information from Jacob Vanmeter, who was the 
younger Jacob Vanmeter in the original constitution of the church. He 
died a few years since at the advanced age of about ninety-five, having 
been a Baptist eighty-four years. 

They then had no house of worship. In the summertime they wor- 
shipped in the open air, in the winter time they met in the round log 
cabins with dirt floors, as there was no mills and plank to make a floor. 
A few who had aspired to be a little aristocratic split timber and made 
puncheon floors. 

The men dressed as Indians ; leather leggins and moccasins adorned 
their feet and legs. Hats made of splinters rolled in Buffalo wool and 
sewed together with deer sinews or buckskin whang; shirts of buck- 
skin and hunting shirts of the same ; some went the whole Indian cos- 
tume and wore breech-clouts. The females wore a coarse cloth made 
of Buffalo wool, underwear of dressed doe skin, sun bonnets, something 
after the fashion of men's hats and the never-failing moccasin for the 
feet in winter, in summer time all went barefooted. 

When they met for preaching or prayer, the men sat with their trusty 
rifles at their sides, and as they had to watch as well as pray, a faithful 
sentinel keeping a look out for the lurking Indian. But it so happened 
that their services were never seriously interrupted, except on one occa- 
sion. One of the watchers came to the door hole during a sermon and 
endeavored by signs and winks to apprise the people that something 
was wrong — not being exactly understood, a person within winked at 
the messenger, as much as to say, "Don't interrupt us." But the case 
being urgent, the outside man exclaimed "None of your winking and 
blinking — I tell you the Indians are about." 

15 



That was understood, the meeting was closed, and mihtary defense 
organized. Now, gentle and fair reader, I beseech you, not to blush or 
be ashamed of your forerunners ; they were the chosen of God and 
nature's nobility. There was no distinction or turning up of noses 
in that day, each was his other's equal, they were brothers and so 
esteemed and loved each other. 

No burdened field of corn ; no waving fields of wheat came to the 
harvest; no potato crop burrowed the earth. The wild game that 
roamed the forest was the only dependence the first year; the rifle 
was indispensable. It was made common cause, food was obtained 
at the risk of life. The unsuccessful hunter lacked nothing. The man 
who brought down the buffalo, the deer or bear, divided out and all had 
plenty. When news reached a fort that Indians were around, all were 
upon the alert, the men seeing that their weapons were in order, and 
the women, God bless them, went each to their neighbor, and inquired, 
"Have you plenty of meat? If you have not I have it." And immedi- 
ately there was an equal division. The dried venison, called "jirk," was 
the bread ; the fat, juicy bear the esculent, the bulky buffalo, the sub- 
stantial ; and tiie turkey the dessert ; nobody had the dyspepsia and all 
had good teeth. But soon the brawny arm leveled the forest fields were 
opened and a plenty of the substantial of life soon blessed their labors. 

Often has the writer heard old people talk with great fondness of 
old forting times as a green spot in their history — they loved to dwell 
upon the scenes of early trails and dangers, when men and women were 
all true hearted and no selfishness. 

At an early period Christopher Bush settled in the valley, in what is 
now the boundary of Elizabethtown. He was of German descent, a 
stirring, industrious man, and had a large family of sons and daugliters. 
The sons were stalwart men, of great muscular power; there was no 
backout in them ; never shunned a fight when they considered it neces- 
sary to engage in it, and nobody ever heard one cry "enough." The 
most of the family left Kentucky. One of the daughters married 
Thomas Lincoln, the father of the late President, Abraham Lincoln, 
w^ho was the son of a former wife, and she had the principal care of 
rearing and educating the future President. She was an excellent 
woman. 

16 



Christopher Bush, Jr., the youngest son, but one of the original 
Christopher Bush, remained and died in Kentucky. He was a good 
citizen and successful farmer. He reared a family and paid more atten- 
tion to the education of his children than any other member of the 
family, and it turns out that his labor was not in vain. His eldest son, 
Martin M. Bush, Esq., is one of the best surveyors in the State. The 
Hon. W. P. D. Bush is a lawyer of considerable distinction ; he has been 
frequently in the Legislature of Kentucky and was in some degree a 
leader of the Democratic party, and is now reporter of the decisions of 
the Court of Appeals. Two other sons, Robert Y. Bush and Squire H. 
Bush, are lawyers of promise. 

One of his daughters was married to Col. Martin H. Cofer. Col. 
Cofer, son of Thomas Cofer, was born in the vicinity of this town, and 
under adverse circumstances commenced the study of law, and soon 
after entered upon a lucrative and successful practice at the Elizabeth- 
town bar. At the commencement of the late civil war he took sides with 
the Confederates and commanded a regiment throughout the war, and 
was regarded as an able and gallant commander and now bears upon 
his person some receipts that will accompany him through life. . As soon 
as the war was ended, having passed through many of the most terrible 
battles of that disastrous war he returned to Elizabethtown, having lost 
all but his honor, and immediately applied himself assiduously to his 
profession, gracefully submitting himself to the laws and the powers 
that be, in such a manner as gave him the esteem of all parties, acknowl- 
edging that the wager of battle had decided against secession. He has 
since published a valuable work on the decisions of the Court of Appeals 
of Kentucky, and is now regarded as one of the best lawyers in 
Kentucky. 

CHAPTER HI 

FIRST COURT 

The first term of the county court was held at the house of Isaac 
Hynes on the 22nd day of July, 1793. Present, Patrick Brown, John 
Vertrees, Robt. Hodgen and Bladen Ashby, gentlemen Justices. 

FIRST CLIiRK 

John Paul was appointed clerk protempore, not having a certificate 
of qualification. Isaac Hynes produced a commission and was quali- 

17 



fied as first sheriff. Constables, districts were laid off by captains com- 
panies. John Paul, under a commission, qualified as first coroner. 

AUGUST TERM, 1 793 

Samuel Haycraft was appointed to take in the lists of taxable prop- 
erty for Hardin county. 

FIRST SURVEYOR 

Benjamin Helm, under a commission from Governor Shelby, quali- 
fied as surveyor. 

Several constables were appointed, and as hogs and cattle began to 
multiply in the land, many men had their "ear-marks," meaning stock 
mark, recorded. 

The mark recording continued for many years in great abundance, as 
men were honest and did not wish to take their neighbors hogs and 
had a slight indisposition to losing their own. 

Anticipating that some men might be poor, overseers of the poor 
were elected. Court house and jail talked about it. At that time an 
order was spread on paper, no record book being yet procured, in these 
words : . 

"Pursuant to an act of Assembly a majority of the magistrates in 
the commission of the peace, were of the opinion that the most conve- 
nient place for erecting the poor house and jail for county of Hardin, 
was in Severn's Valley on the land belonging to Andrew Hynes, laid off 
for that purpose, and on that part of said land that adjoins Samuel 
Haycraft, and it is ordered that said building be erected at the aforesaid 
place. By consent of Isaac Hynes it is ordered by the court that he 
build a pound for the purpose of keeping strays on court days as 
directed by an act of Assembly." 

JAIL 

On the same day the sheriff was directed to let out the building of 
the "jail to the lowest bidder," The court adjourned to meet at the 
house of Isaac Hynes. 

The stray pen or pound was then necessary, as few pastures were 
enclosed, and cattle and horses found plentiful food in browsing on 
the cane brakes. Cane grew in abundance on all rich lands and particu- 
larly on the margins of water courses. 

18 



PUBLIC RECORDS 

I might as well say here that clerks had no office buildings, no desks 
or presses, or any lock up affairs. The clerk of the county court 
tumbled his papers into a basket. The clerk of the Quarterly session 
court, laid his documents in a buckeye bread tray. 

No bound books ; what purported to be the records were written on 
coarse sheets of paper sewed together. But since by authority of the 
Legislature acts have been transcribed into bound books. 

Previous to and at this term, the court manifested a laudable zeal 
in opening communication with the outside world "and the rest of 
mankind." Viewers were appointed to lay off roads from the court 
house (as the town had no name) to Parepoint's mill, to the crossing of 
Meeting creek on the way to Hartford. And Robert Baird, Phillip 
Taylor and Robert Mosley were appointed to continue as viewers for 
a road from the crossing of Meeting creek to Hartford; these two 
links proposed a road seventy-five miles long, through a trackless 
country, except buffalo traces, and those traces had no general direc- 
tion, except from cane brake and from water course to water course 
and celebrated licks. 

DEER LICKS 

Deer resorted much to salt or sulphur licks ; these licks were closely 
watched by hunters, and as those animals are keen scented, the hunter 
took his position in the trees surrounding the lick, and it was a rare 
thing to miss bringing down a buck every night. Experienced hunters 
never looked for the game on the course of the wind, as a deer could 
smell a man on the wind two hundred yards. 

ROADS 

To return to roads. Ways were laid out from Hodgen's mill to the 
valley, to the Burnt lick on Rolling fork to Salt lick, and the road 
from Elizabethtown to Hodgen's mill established 75 years ago still 
exists with some small alterations. 

JAIL 

At the same time, 1793, the building of the first jail was let to Isaac 
La Rue at twelve pounds and sixteen shillings. 

19 



CHAPTER IV 

I omitted to state in the proper place, to-wit: At July term, 1793. 

"The court proceeded to rate the several ordinaries in the counties 
as follows : 

To whisky by the half pint, 7^ pence ; for lodging one night, 3 
pence; for supper or breakfast, i shilling; for dinner, i shilling and 6 
pence ; for stabling and hay per night, i shilling ; for corn and oats by the 
gallon, 6 pence ; for one quart do., 2 pence ; for pasturage for horses 24 
hours, 6 pence. 

The tavern keepers at Hartford, Vienna and Hardin's settlement 
(Hardinsburg) are allowed to sell whisky at 6 pence per half pint. 

There is something remarkable in the above bill. One-half pint of 
whisky seems to have been worth two and a half nights' rest in a 
feather bed ; perhaps whisky was considered to be a necessity, and a 
good night's rest a mere matter of fancy ; but it is more difficult to 
arrive at the reason why whisky was not worth as much at Vienna 
(falls of Green river), Hartford or Hardin's settlement as at the Valley. 
It might have been because whisky was not so good at those places or 
money matters a little tighter, although Beaver was more plentiful at 
those places. 

(Note — Taverns were at this date styled "ordinaries," universally 
pronounced "ornaries," and Spiller Waide says, "It is highly likely 
the pronunciation hit the nail on the head more appropriately than 
the spelling." In Virginia they are yet called Inns.) 

BIG BILL 

Speaking of Hardin's station or settlement, I digress a little. Wil- 
liam Hardin, who founded the settlement, was a man of giant size, and 
ponderous weight, and was a terror to the Indians, and was known to 
them as "Big Bill," and their great desire was to get his scalp. 

Hardin, like every other man at that day, was a hunter. Early one 
morning he came out of his house and fired off his gun, in order to 
wipe it out, preparatory to a hunt. A stout warrior stepped from 
behind the chimney with a rifle poised and, making sure of his man, 
could not resi,st the temptation to tantalize, and exclaimed : "Hooh, Big 
Bill !" That was a fatal pause for the Indian, when Hardin, quick with 

20 



his gun, clubbed, knocked down the Indian's gun, and in a minute the 
Indian lay dead at his feet. 

COUNTY LEVY 

At December term, 1793, the court proceeded to lay the county levy. 

The allowance amounted to 47 pounds 14 shillings, including build- 
ing of the jail, clerk's book, sheriff's extra services, per cent, and in the 
whole county there were 318 tithables assessed at 3 shillings each. 

Samuel Haycraft, gentleman, as commissioner of taxes, allowed 31 
days for taking lists at 6 shillings per day. 

(The county was nearly 140 miles Iqng and on an average nearly 
50 miles wide.) 

Commissioner appointed to settle with the county of Nelson for 
levies paid before and after Hardin county was erected. 

JULY TERM, 1794 

Rosannah Swank administered upon the estate of her deceased hus- 
band, John Swank. John Sw^ank lived in a fort of his own two miles 
northeast of Elizabethtown. He and his wife on a travel to Bardstown 
were waylaid and attacked by the Indians. Both of their horses were 
shot under them and Mrs. Swank was wounded in the arm. In attempt- 
ing to make their escape after running a short distance her horse fell 
dead under her ; she had a new saddle which she stripped from the 
dead animal and hung it in a tree. Swank's horse, being yet able to go, 
he dismounted and put his wife on his saddle, and he fled on foot to a 
cave on the old Cofer farm two miles from his fort. His dog betrayed 
him by barking at the pursuing Indians, and he was pierced by nine- 
teen bullets and killed instantly. 

Mrs. Swank fled on her husband's wounded horse until he failed. 
She left the .dying horse and escaped on foot, and being a fleshy woman 
and clad in a new heavy linsey dress, she pulled it off as she ran, and 
so strong was her carefulness that she saved every pin and stuck them 
in an even row in the bosom of her dress. 

She lived many years after, a skillful and popular midwife. Swank's 
fort occupied the ground where her son-in-law, William Edlin, after- 
wards lived and died. She left considerable family of Swank's, the 
most of whom became rich or comfortable and subsequently removed to 



Missouri. The Edlin family now residing among us are the grand- 
children. 

CLERKS 

At the July term, 1794, John Paul, who had been acting as clerk 
pro tem., produced a certificate of his qualification from the Judges of 
the Court of Appeals and was permanently made clerk of the County 
Court of Hardin. 

August term, 1794, the court appointed commissioners to inspect 
tile jail built by Isaac Larue and reported it well done, and allowed 12 
pounds 16 shillings, equal to $42.66^. This was a cheap jail, although 
it was built of poplar round logs. It was standing within my recollec- 
tion, but terribly bored by bumble bees — and never was worth a flint 
as a jail. 

The next day the sheriff protested the public jail as insufficient. 

October term, 1794, John Paul, clerk, was allowed 12 pounds 14 
shillings for record book and traveling expenses on horseback to Lex- 
ington and back, ex-officio, services, paper, etc. Sheriff allowed 6 
pounds 5 shillings for ex-officio services in 1793, and 8 shillings for a 
ticket box for the use of the election for that year, voting by ballot, I 
suppose. 

; COURT HOUSE TO BE LET 

January term, 1795, Court held at the house of John Vertrees. 

^'Ordered that the Court House be let to the lowest bidder at the next 
March Court, agreeable to a plan that will be read on that day, and 
that the sheriff advertise the same." 

Ichabod Radley was sworn as Deputy for Isaac Hynes, Sheriff. 
-Ichabod Radley was a Down Easter, and had a better English educa- 
tion than common for that day, and was employed by William Hardin, 
of Hardin's settlement, as a teacher. The late Hon. Ben Hardin, Robert 
Wickliffe and many other men of note were his pupils. He was the 
first who shook the birch over my head. In passing through the Valley 
to Bardstown he became acquainted with Hannah Bush, daughter of 
the elder Christopher Bush ; that acquaintance ripened into love and 
in due course of time they were married. They raised quite a family 
and all left the country but our fellow citizen, Isaac Radley, Esq., a 
gentleman of property in this town. He has filled the place of Deputy 

22 



and high Sheriff several years and counted as an excellent officer, and 
now stands at the head of a genteel and worthy family. 

THE COURT HOUSE ON WHEELS 

The Court had fixed the place for erecting the Court House in the 
Valley ; but the settlers around Hodgen's mill wanted it there, and in 
order to give every place a fair shake, the Court at March term, 1795, 
passed the following order verbatim, to-wit : 

"Ordered that it be advertised that the Court have no objection to 
the public buildings of Hardin county being erected in any convenient 
place where the largest superscription may be made for ; provided, a 
sufficient superscription may be made by the next May Court." 

MAY TERM, 1 795 

Samuel Haycraft, gentleman, produced a commission from Gov- 
ernor Isaac Shelby, appointing him sheriff of Hardin county, and was 
qualified and gave bond with John Vertrees, Stephen Rawlings and John 
Paul, his securities. 

Edward Rawlings was admitted and qualified as Deputy Sheriff. 

SPUNKY DEPUTY SHERIFF 

Edward Rawlings, son of Stephen, was then a young man, after- 
wards Captain Rawlings. He was a slender, tall man, with but little 
surplus flesh, nearly all muscle, very active, and prided himself on his 
manhood and high sense of chivalric honor. A warrant was placed in 
his hands to arrest "Bill Smothers," who was a rollicking kind of out- 
law, and frequently guilty of personal outrages. He infested the lower 
end of the county — now Daviess county (which I omitted in my first 
number to set down as part of Hardin), about 130 miles from the 
present Court House. Rawlings, by strategem and some help, arrested 
Smothers, tied him on a horse and started with him on a long journey 
for the jail. When on the road between Hartford and Hardin's settle- 
ment. Smothers addressed Rawlings something after this manner : 

"Ned, I have heard of you, and that you boast yourself to be much 
of a man. Is it fair if you are a better man than me ? I promised to go 
with you untied, and if I prove to be the better man then let me go." 

Rawlings was too high strung and chivalric to stand that, im- 
mediately dismounted and untied his prisoner, and at it they went. — and, 



like James Fitz James and Rhoderic Dhu, without a spectator to behold 
the contest, they were well matched. Their brawny arms encircled each 
other, and every power of muscle, sinew and bone was put in requisition 
and it would have afforded a rare chance for a special artist. The con- 
test was long and doubtful. But Smothers, being as accustomed to 
hardships and lying in the woods as the wild beasts, outwinded the 
Deputy and came off the victor, and accordingly went his way, and 
Rawlings considered that the matter had been settled by the code of 
honor, fist and skull, and was content with the issue. His fee in case 
of success would have been three shillings in tobacco at a penny ha-penny 
per pound. 

SUPERSCRIPTION FAILING CO^RT HOUSE TO BE BUILT IN THE VALLEY 

At May term, 1795, appears the following entry of record: 

"At our last Court an order was passed to advertise that the Court 
had no objection to the public building being erected by superscrip- 
tion was brought forward at this Court, but no superscription appear- 
ing, the Court proceeded to let out the building of the Court House to 
the lowest bidder, which was cried oft* to John Crutcher, gentleman, at 
66 pounds, to be built agreeable to a plan which was read at the Court 
House door. It is not exactly certain where the Court House door 
was, as there was no public Court House. Most likely it was at the 
door of Capt. John Vertrees, on the spot where James S. Howey now 
lives. 

The Court adjourned till Court in course to be held in Elizabeth- 
town. 

This is the first time that the place was designated as EHzabethtown. 
It was thirty acres of land laid out by Col. Andrew Hynes in 1793 as a 
place to erect the public buildings, and at this time the name was given in 
honor of the Colonel's wife, Mrs. Elizabeth Hynes. 

This action of the Court settled the point where the Court House 
should be, so far as the Court was concerned, but it was not satisfactory 
to the whole county, as it was only ten miles from the upper end of the 
county, and one hundred and thirty miles from the lower end of the 
county, which was sparsely settled. 

The'controversy was between the settlement of Nolin and the dwell- 
ers in the Valley. The Nolin settlements consisted chiefly of the 

24 



Hodgens, Larues, PhilHpses, Kirkpatricks, Deremiahs, Ashcrafts, Dyes, 
Walters, Kostars, etc. 

The Valley settlement was composed of the Helms, Hyneses, 
Churchills, Millers, Haycrafts, Bushes, Percifuls, Bruces, VanMeters, 
Shaws, Bruners, Bells, etc., the Valley being rather the most numerous. 

There was hot blood all the time from 1794 to about 1803, each set- 
tlement believing they ought to have the county seat, and the con- 
troversy was bitter and hostile feelings divided the two sections. But 
particularly at the annual elections the feeling could not be controlled 
and during that period was the occasion of at least fifty combats of fist 
and skull, there being no pistols, knives, brass knucks or slungshots used 
in those days. The only unfair weapon used to my knowledge was by 
a young man by the name of Bruce, who had his shoes pointed with 
iron or steel, something like gafifs, being himself addicted to chicken 
fighting. 

On one occasion, when quite small, I remember to have seen about 
twenty couple fighting at once at the end of Main Cross street, near 
where the bridge now stands. I think that was the last conflict. It 
terminated in a running skirmish as far out as the long hollow. But 
these matters have long since been forgotten, feelings and friendly rela- 
tions having been restored. 

Hodgenville is now the county seat of Larue county, which was 
struck ofif from Hardin in 1842 and is a flourishing, pleasant town. 

CHAPTER V 

COURT HOUSE BUILT AND A NEW COMER ON THE SAME DAY 

The Court House must be built — John Crutcher, gentleman, was the 
undertaker for sixty-six pounds, equal to about $220, more or less. It 
was considered a pile — well it was to go up in the woods. The trees 
were all around. The old Kentucky axe with a good hand at the off- 
wheel, could fell the trees. The broadaxe could hew, the whipsaw could 
cut the plank, the frow and drawing-knife make the shingles (to be put 
on with wooden pegs), all to be had within one hundred yards of the 
spot. ' Uncle Johnny was a pusher, and he had willing hands — and such 
a ringing of the woodman's axe, such a crushing of falling trees, such a 
whizzing of the whipsaw as it ran up and down — by the job — by the 

25 



job — in double quick. Then such a scoring and hewing, such a sawing 
and riving and snaving. Then the many songs and jibes of the laborers 
making vocal the grand forest — nothing equal to the excitement was 
experienced since Indian times. 

Many hands made light work, so that on the 14th day of August, 
1795, most glorious day, all was ready for the grand raising. Skids and 
hand-spikes and pushing dog-wood forks all ready, and forty strong 
hands on the ground with numerous women and children to behold 
the grand sight. 

A little difficulty sprang up about the feeding of such a large force 
of healthy, hearty men, each of whom could lift three or four times as 
much weight, and each of them could eat nearly the tenth part of his 
weight avoirdupois. 

My father's double log-house cabin was the only chance. The old 
house stood about seventy yards southeast of the fine dwelling house of 
T. H. Gunter, Esq. It was in the middle of what is now the railroad 
tract, and in this connection I will show what the women of the olden 
time could perform. My mother and eldest sister, with some younger 
ones, to hand things and bring water, got the dinner in the style of those 
halcyon days. Large loaves of bread from the clay oven, roast shoats, 
chickens, ducks, potatoes, roast beef with cabbage and beans, old-fash- 
ioned baked custard and pudding, and the indispensable pies, pickles, 
etc., etc. 

Well, the dinner was set, all hands had their fill, the men back to 
their work, the table cleared off, the crumbs shook out to the dogs, the 
dishes, pewter spoons, knives, forks and pewter basins wiped and 
stowed away on the shelf of the dresser — that brought nearly 3 o'clock, 
p. m. On that remarkable occasion and about that time I made my 
first appearance on the stage of action, but as a new comer I was in a 
pitiable plight and destitute condition, for I was naked as a rat, without 
a cent of money and no pocket to put it in if I had a copper. 

But I fell into good hands — was well clothed and fed, grew a little, 
and have weathered the storms of seventy-four winters and summers, 
having retained my eyesight, hearing, smelling, taste and appetite in a 
remarkable manner, and scandal says yet very fond of a good cup of 
coffee. 

2< 



ELIZABETHTOWN ESTABLISHED JULY TERM OF 1 797 

Thus far I have been somewhat tedious in giving the proceedings 
of a county court in olden times, omitting the innumerable stock marks, 
administrators, deeds acknowledged in open court, constable appoint- 
ment, etc. 

TOWN ESTABLISHED 

At a court held on the fourth day of July, 1797. 

PRESENT 

Robert Hodgen, Stephen Rawlings and George Helm, gentlemen 
justices. 

On motion of Andrew Hynes, Esq., who together with Benjamin 
Helm, his security, entered into and acknowledged their bond, condi- 
tioned agreeably to an act of assembly vesting the county courts with 
power to establish towns, etc. Whereas thirty acres of land, the prop- 
erty of the said Andrew Hynes, has been laid off in town lots, and the 
public buildings for the county of Hardin erected thereon, agreeable to 
the plan laid down and recorded in the Clerk's office. It is considered 
by the court that the town so laid oflf be established and known by the 
name of Elizabethtown. Ordered that the following persons be ap- 
pointed trustees to said town, to-wit : Robert Hodgen, Benjamin Helm, 
Armstead Churchill, John Vertrees, Stephen Rawlings, Samuel Hay- 
craft, Isaac Morrison and James Crutcher. 

SECOND JAIL 

At the same term, July, 1797, the repairing of the Court House and 
the erecting of stocks (whipping-post included) was let to Stephen 
Rawlings at 24 pounds ; also the building of a new jail was sold to said 
Rawlings at 150 pounds, the work to be completed by the first day of 
January next. 

This was a substantial hewed log building, lined with thick oak 
plank, spiked well with wrought spikes, and was built on the spot where 
the public well is now situated. In those days men were imprisoned 
for debt, a mistaken policy, a relic of hard times and barbarism long 
since exploded, and in course of a few years many men, white and black, 
were confined in the stocks and flogged at the whipping-post. The 
manner of punishment in the stocks was this : The offender was placed 

27 



upon his knees, his head and hands placed through the holes formed 
in two planks, the upper one sliding in a groove, let down and fastened 
with a lock. If the man was dead drunk he was laid on his back and his 
feet inserted in two holes made to suit the case. He laid there until he 
was sober. 

An old statute required a ducking stool for scolding women, but our 
old county court gentlemen were too gallant to avail themselves of that 
kind of machine, and let the fair sex scold on ad libitum if they chose. 

The last described jail stood some years, and a man confined for debt 
concluded to burn his way out, fired the jail, and the jailer being out of 
the way, it was with much difficulty he was saved from being burned 
alive. The jail burned down, and the prisoner was indicted for arson, 
but was acquitted, and being a bricklayer, afterwards put up the best 
brick house in town, and in 1826 fell heir to an estate of $9,000 in 
England. 

CLERK RESIGNED HIS PLACE FILLED 

On the 5th day of March, 1800, John Paul, clerk of the County 
Court, resigned his ofiice, and Ben Helm, Esq., who produced a cer- 
tificate of qualification, was appointed in the place of Paul. Major 
Helm held the ofifice until February, 1817, when he resigned. Mr. 
Helm died in February, 1858. In the May following he would have 
been ninety-one years old. 

Here I must anticipate the chronology of my history runnmg out 
the jails and court house matters. 

STONE JAIL 

The building of a new jail (the third jail), to be of stone, was let to 
Charles Helm on the 25th day of November, 1806, at $2,485. The jail 
was to be forty-two feet long and twenty-one feet wide. The dungeon 
was under ground after the barbarous plan of old feudal times. The 
jail was divided so as to admit of the jailer residing in it. An example 
of this may be found more than 1,800 years ago, being authorized by 
the New Testament. I mean the jail at Phillippi, where Paul and Silas 
were confined in chains. Being devotional men, they sang praises to 
God and prayed at the dead hour of midnight. When the jail was 
shaken with an earthquake, the fetters fell ofT the prisoners, and the 
jailer sprang in and was about to slay himself, thinking his prisoners 

28 



had escaped, but was told to do himself no harm, as they were all there. 

Then the jailer, whose character has been often abused, proved him- 
self to be a pretty clever fellow. My readers will please pardon this 
digression. 

I think that the first jailer in that new prison was the Rev. Benjamin 
Ogden, a Methodist preacher. He was a chairmaker and a good work- 
man in wood. He was the first Methodist preacher I ever saw. He 
came to Elizabethtown in 1803 or 1804, and his first effort was to raise 
a school. He came to my father's house on school business, and I well 
remember that I was terribly frightened when I heard that I was to go 
to his school, but on better acquaintance I learned to reverence and love 
him. He was a good man and a fair preacher. The next jailer was 
Frederick. TuU, who died in the jail with the old cholera plague in 1814. 
Then followed Daniel Johnson, John Haywood and Enoch Lucky, who 
I believe was the last jailer in the stone house. Some years after the 
present brick jail was erected. It was undertaken and built by James 
Perceful. Richard May was the architect, and John Redman, black- 
smith, framed the iron grates. I recollect that I was one of the commis- 
sioners to superintend the building, and after the wall was up a crack 
was discovered in the brickwork, and Perceful had to suffer a reduc- 
tion of nearly a thousand dollars. But after standing some twenty 
years, in settling of the house, the crack closed up, and by the interces- 
sion of myself and the other commissioners the County Court made an 
allowance of five hundred dollars to Perceful and it was paid. 

CHAPTER VI 

On the i8th day of April, 1804, the building of the present brick 
Court House was let to James Perceful, and it was completed and re- 
ceived on the 22nd day of December, 1806. James Crutcher, Ben 
Helm, Robert Huston, Samuel Haycraft and John W. Holt, Esq., super- 
intended the work. It was then considered to be a fine house, and the 
country flocked in to see it. Its fame spread far and wide — so much so 
that Butler County years afterward adopted the plan throughout in 
building their court house. 

It still stands now in 1869, after having undergone many altera- 
tions and repairs, and is now decidedly the poorest and most uncom- 

29 



fortable court house in the State, considering the weahh and population 
of the county. But its old weather-beaten and rusty walls are entitled 
to some veneration on account of its past history of sixty-three years. 

That house has been the theatre of some of the loftiest forensic 
displays. Its walls have reverberated the eloquence of the Hons. Wil- 
liam McClung, John Rowan, Benjamin Hardin, John J. Crittenden^ 
John Pope, Felix Grundy, Charles A. Wickliffe, John L. Helm, Thomas 
Chilton, Charles G. Wintersmith, Benjamin Tobin, Benjamin Chapeze 
and John Hays, of the old practitioners, all of whom except two are in 
their graves, and a host of other lawyers of more recent date, of whom 
it is my purpose to notice in proper time if my life is spared and health 
permits. 

Eminent ministers of nearly all denominations have preached in it. 
A vast amount of eloquent breath has been blown in it by candidates for 
State and county offices. The clerk's offices were kept in it for several 
years. Schools have been taught in it. Public exhibitions and Indian 
dances in it were frequent. Many men have left it with the doom of 
death or penitentiary weighing upon them. 

Our national jubilees were celebrated in it, parties and balls have 
been held in it, and the youth of our country, male and female, have 
tripped the light fantastic toe, and during the late civil war it was 
repeatedly occupied by armed soldiers. 

So far I have been confined to the operations of the County Courts 
the erection of public buildings and other matters connected therewith, 
and thus ran ahead of the history. 

I now will turn my attention to the Quarter Session and Circuit 
Courts held in Elizabethtown and in the woods before it was a town. 
Here endeth the first lesson on courts. 

BACK TO THE WOODS AGAIN — QUARTER SESSION COURT 

On the 26th day of February, 1793, the first Quarter Session Court 
(being the first court held in the county) was held in the house of Isaac 
Hynes in Severn's Valley. 

A commission was produced appointing Phillip Phillips, Joseph 
Barnett and Thomas Helm, Justices of the Court of Quarter Sessions, 
who being sworn took their seats ; and in the same commission Patrick 
Brown, John Vertrees, John Paul, William Hardin and Alexander 

30 



Barnett, gentlemen, were appointed Justices of the Hardin county 
court. 

FIRST CLERK 

Isaac Morrison was appointed clerk pro tempore. 

FIRST SHEJRIFF 

Isaac Hynes, Esq., produced a commission as sheriff of Hardin 
county, gave bond and qualified. 

John Vertrees, Esq., was qualified as Justice of the Peace. 

FIRST ATTORNEY 

James Dohertie, gentleman, admitted to the bar as attorney at law 
and sworn, and the court adjourned. 

This being the first term of court in Hardin county, a word or 
two about the Judges or Justices of the court may not be amiss. All 
three of them were Calvinistic Baptists. Hon. Judge Thomas Helm, 
the progenitor of all the Helms in the country, was from Virginia, and 
there ranked among the first families — and so held his rank here — was 
a gentleman in afifluent circumstances, and lived and died where his 
fort was erected on the farm now owned by Mrs. Lucinda B. Helm, 
the estimable widow of the late Governor John L. Helm. 

Hon. Judge Phillip Phillips was also a gentleman of large estate — 
lived on Nolin about ten miles from the Valley — was a man of much 
influence and figured for several years in Church and State to a con- 
siderable extent. Afterwards removed to Tennessee, where he died, 
leaving a large estate in lands and goods and chatties. 

Hon. Judge Joseph Barnett was a Baptist preacher — lived near 
Hartford, and traveled upwards of seventy-five miles to sit in court. 
He possessed a large landed estate, and as before stated, was one of 
the preachers who constituted Severn's Valley Baptist Church, on the 
17th day of June, 1781. 

James Dohertie, Esq., who was first sworn attorney, came to the 
Valley a little in advance of the court, arriving at my father's on foot, 
without money and a perfect stranger. In order to make himself wel- 
come to board and lodging assisted in making sugar, carn-ing water, 
heavy wood into the furnace and making himself generally useful. No 
person dreamed that he was a lawyer, and it produced no little astonish- 

31 



ment when at the first court he pulled out his law license and was 
sworn in. 

I have heard old pleople speak of Doherite as a prodig}^' in law knowl- 
edge, and a Boanerges in debates. But where he came from or where 
he went to, no mortal man now living can tell — it all happened before 
I was born. But gentlemen lawyers remember that James Dohertie 
was at the head of the bar in Hardin county before Elizabethtown had 
an existence. 

APRIL TERM, I793 

Present Judges Phillip Phillips and Thomas Helm. 

FIRST SUIT TRIED 

Samuel and Christopher Bush against John Handley — attachment. 

A jury found a verdict for nine pounds and five shillings and costs. 

A little explanation may be necessary to show why an attachment 
was taken out against John Handley. 

He had by some means got into a difficulty at Bardstown with John 
Gilpin, which ended in his killing Gilpin, and such was the dread and 
horror of killing a man in those days, that lie fled until men had time to 
cool — the Bushes and others thought Handley never would return. He 
afterwards gave himself up, was tried and acquitted. He afterwards 
laid ofif the town of Vienna at the falls of Green River and lived many 
years, possessed of a handsome estate, and having occupied a high 
position in society, died at a good old age. One of his sons, George 
Handley, Esq., now of Larue county, was for years clerk of Davies 
county, and although an excellent clerk, voluntarily resigned the office 
and became a quiet gentleman farmer near the town of Hodgenville. 
Eight suits were disposed of at this term. 

THIRD TERM, JUNE 25TH, 1793 

A grand jury was impaneled and sworn, but such quiet and good 
order prevailed in the county that they had nothing to present — were 
discharged. 

Banner Friend produced a commission and qualified as surveyor 
of Hardin county. John Paul, Robert Baird, Ben Helm and David 
Phillips, gentlemen, were sworn and admitted as deputy surveyors. 
Robert Hodgen, gentleman, sworn as Justice of the Peace. 

32 



It appears that the Quarter Session Court and County Court had or 
at least practiced concurrent jurisdiction. Deeds were acknowledged 
before each court, and each clerk recorded deeds until the establish- 
ment of the Circuit Court, then the County Court did all that business ; 
sheriffs, surveyors, &c., were qualified in each court and so were justice 
of the peace. 

Robert Hodgen, who was qualified at this term as a justice of the 
peace was from Virginia. He was an honorable high-toned gentleman 
of the good old school ; was the soul of hospitality, and was well patron- 
ized in that line — was an active enterprising business man, and figured 
largely during life in the interest of the county and in the Baptist 
Church, of which he was counted a pillar. Two of his sons were 
preachers of the Gospel. His oldest son, Isaac Hodgen, was one of the 
best and most eloquent preachers of Kentucky. He was a man of large 
stature, and according to my notion was one of the finest looking men 
in the State. 

His fine commanding presence, the great compass of his voice, which 
although music itself, was so powerful as to be distinctly heard a great 
distance; which, joined with his eloquence and logical reasoning and 
persuasive style, made him almost irresistible, insomuch that his lajjors 
were sought for at great distances. He was the founder of a church 
in Nashville, Tennessee, and afterwards sent as a delegate to the trien- 
nial convention of Baptists in the city of Philadelphia. 

He died in Green county in the full vigor of life, and was supposed 
to have been poisoned. 

Robert Hodgen died in 1809 or 1810 and left a large family. Of 
some of his descendants I may hereafter have occasion to speak in con- 
nection with the interests of Elizabethtown. 

CHAPTER \ II 

SEPTEMBER TERM, 1 793 

Present — Phillip Phillips, Joseph Barnett and Thomas Helm, Jus- 
tices. 

William McCIung and Sephen Ormsby, Esqs., were sworn and 
admitted to the bar as attorneys. 

33 



William McClung, Esq., was appointed Commonwealth's Attorney 
for this court. 

Commonwealth's Attorneys were not then commissioned by the 
Governor — each county appointed their own prosecuting attorney — 
and were paid out of the county levy. 

Stephen Ormsby was a native of Ireland, raised in Louisville, and 
was afterward Judge of the Hardin Circuit Court. 

The first presentment of the Grand Jury was against Isaac Hynes, 
the Sheriff, for swearing. 

TEMPORARY JAIL 

The court made this order : 

"Ordered that Isaac Hynes' still-house be appointed a temporary 
jail." -N 

Isaac Hynes, gentleman, sheriff enters his protest against the suffi- 
ciency of the jail appointed by the court. 

Isaac knew all about his own still-house and thought that it was 
sufficient so long as a prisoner was kept under the influence of his 
still-worm, but that under sober second thought, the prisoner could find 
egress at the door, or the window, or clab-bord roof, and therefore 
protested. 

A new grand jury was impaneled who, seeming to get the hang of 
things, presented three different persons for retailing spiritous liquors 
without license — one was against the high sherifif, but the presentment 
against the sheriff was quashed on the ground that he was a regular 
distiller. 

The grand jury thus showing a laudable purpose to suppress vice 
and maintain the dignity of the law, were adjourned over to second 
day. 

SECOND DAY 

The grand jury again assembled and retired to the woods (as they 
had no room), and after due deliberation returned a batch of present- 
ments for almost every conceivable minor offence, such as swearing, 
getting drunk, fighting and last, though not least, against two unmarried' 
women for having children without the necessary appendage of a 
husband. 

34 



The court did not think that being a distiller authorized a man to 
swear as well as sell liquor and therefore ordered Isaac to add five 
shillings to the public funds. 

DECEMBER TERM, 1 794 

James Nourse sworn as attorney at law. 

FEBRUARY TERM, 1 795 — CLERK PRO TEM HASTENED 

Isaac Morrison having been appointed as clerk pro tempore from 
February term 1793, was ordered to produce a certificate of quaUfica- 
tion by the next term or walk the plank. 

The court took cognizance of the fact, that its terms had been held 
in the house of Isaac Hynes for two years past, to his great inconve- 
nience, and allowed him ten pounds and directed the county to pay 
him. 

APRIL TERM, I795 — A NEW CLERK PRO TEMPORE 

Isaac Morrison, the clerk pro tem., not producing a certificate of 
qualification the court appointed David May clerk pro tem. Court sat 
three days. 

JUNE TERM, 1795 : 

Present — Thomas Helm and John Carnahan, Judges. 

Richard Dickerson sworn as attorney at law. 

Quite a batch of presentments at this term for profane swearing, 
getting drunk, fighting ; also, against a man and woman for living to- 
gether without the sanction of a priest. 

Also, a presentment against Ben. Parker for threatening the life 
of Christopher Rush, also for being a general disturber of the peace. 
P)Ush was then and for many years a constable, and being a man of 
determination, was a great interruption to such men as Parker. Litiga- 
tion having increased the court sat for four days. 

SEPTEMBER TERM 

Hon. Felix Grundy admitted as attorney at law. 

From the presentments at this term it appears that swearing pro- 
fanely and getting drunk had greatly increased — wolves were numerous 
in the county and whole flocks of sheep were destroyed. 

The grand jury in a presentment petitioned the Legislature to de- 
clare wolves outlaws, and fix a price on their scalps. 

35 



DECEMBER TERM, I795 

Allen Milton Wakefield, Esq., was admitted as attorney at law. I 
know but little of his history ; he was one of the first Judges appointed 
under the Circuit Court system in .1803. 

FEBRUARY TERM_, 1 796 

Present — Judges Thomas Helm, John Carnahan and John Ver- 
trees. 

Captain Vertrees on that day produced his commission as Quarter 
Session Justice. 

Hon. John Pope sworn as attorney at law. 

FIRST CAPITAL PUNISHMENT IN THE COUNTRY 

Jacob, a negro s-\d.\e, the property of John Crow, killed his master 
on the 30th day of December, 1795. They were both cutting on the 
same fallen tree — the negro at the butt end, the master high up. Crow 
thinking that Jacob was not working with a will, came to inspect 
Jacob's cut, reproved him for sloth and turned away to resume his 
chopping ; as soon as liis back was turned Jacob dealt him a blow in 
the head with his axe, which killed him outright. Jacob drew his dead 
master to the side of an old log and covered him with leaves. 

He then fled to Vienna at the falls of Green River. As soon as the 
murder was discovered, Phillip Taylor pursued and took Jacob. When 
arrested he said to Taylor, "I killed Crow, but you prove it." The 
prisoner was conveyed in a canoe to the mouth of Rough Creek, and up 
Rough Creek to Hartford, and from thence was brought under guard to 
Elizabethtown in the Valley. 

On the second day of March, 1796, by consent of the prisoner, he 
was tried by a called court, composed of Judges Thomas Helm and John 
Vertrees. On arrangement Jacob pleaded guilty, and he was sentenced 
to be hung by the neck until he was dead, dead, dead, and the Lord is 
invoked to have mercy on him, and the sheriff, Samuel, Haycraft, was 
ordered to carry the sentence into execution on the second day of 
April, 1796, between the hours of twelve and two o'clock. 

The court not agreeing on the value of the negro, a jury was 
impaneled who fixed his value at eighty pounds. 

36 



As murder at that day was of rare occurrence and this perhaps the 
first in the county, it produced quite a sensation, and particularly so, 
as John Crow was a man of some note and highly esteemed. 

The prisoner was confined in the old poplar log jail and there being 
no jailor, the sheriff with a guard was charged with the custody of 
Jacob. A few days before the execution, the sheriff being absent, the 
dut\- of feeding the prisoner devolved on my mother. On opening the 
door to hand in his dinner, the prisoner made a desperate dash, upset 
the old lady and ran for life. The Hon. George Helm, the father of 
Gov. Helm, being in sight, and being then a stout young man, pursued 
the prisoner about four hundred yards, crossing V'alley creek and 
ascending a hill, caught and brought him back. He was then kept 
safely until the day fixed for his execution, the 2nd day of April, 1796. 

As is usual to this day, on such occasions, the execution was wit- 
nessed by a vast crowd. 

The sheriff having a distaste for the hangman's office (by consent 
of Jacob) procured the services of a black man to tie the noose and 
drive the cart from under. 

The writer was less than a year old, and I suppose was not there but 
for years afterwards he heard the matter spoken of as an era in time, 
"The time Jacob was hung." 

APRIL TERM, 1 796 

Present — Thomas Helm, John Carnahan and John Vertrees. 

I will here note that quarter session courts had the same jurisdiction 
that circuit courts now have, and that the presiding officers were really 
Judges, and entitled to that honorable appellation, but like Judges of 
the United States Court were styled Justices. 

At this term Henry Power Brodnax and David Donan, Esqs., were 
sworn and admitted as attorneys. 

I have no recollection of Donan ; Brodnax afterwards became a 
Circuit Judge ; he lived and died a bachelor, was scrupulously neat, wore 
short breeches with white stockings, knee and shoe buckles of silver and 
kept everything in print ; was polite and attentive to the fair sex, and 
was urgent in his advice to them not to suffer a wrinkle in their stock- 
ings. On the bench he was a terror to evil doers — very strict in this 
discipline of the court. He was in the habit of breaking in a new sheriff 

37 



and for a few terms ruled over him as with a rod of iron ; but as soon 
as he imagined that the sheriff had fallen into traces, he began to treat 
him as a gentleman. In the latter part of his life he professed religion 
and united with the Cumberland Presbyterian church, and was remark- 
able as a very zealous member of that zealous body of Christians. He 
then commenced wearing long pants and became a little more careless 
in his dress. Although he had a farm near Russellville, he boarded at 
a hotel in that city many years. He had a servant man named Brandy, 
who was major domo, and was a great favorite of the Judge's and 
attended to the dairy, which furnished better butter than was to be 
found anywhere else. 

I visited his room at the Edwards Hotel in 1817. It was fitted up 
to his own notion, and had whole shelves of the finest cordials, manu- 
factured by himself with the assistance of his man Brandy. These 
delicacies were more for his friends than for his own use, as he was 
quite a temperance man. He was a remarkable man, of the strictest 
integrity, somewhat eccentric, and when ofif the bench, of social and 
genial habits. 

After 1818 I lost sight of him, living one hundred miles apart. 

CHAPTER VIII 

attorneys' fees made safe — APRIL TERM, 1 796 

It was ruled by the Court that if a person presented by the grand jury 
should confess himself guilty of the foul deed and pay the fine, it 
should not hinder the attorney from pocketing his fee. 

PUBLICATION vs. NON-RESIDENCE — HICKMAN VS. TOBIN 

Order of publication in the Kentucky Gazette, and also to be pub- 
lished at the door of Captain John Vertrees, a place of public worship 
immediately after divine service. 

This is the first notice of a place of public worship I can find of an 
official character in the county. 

A friend has suggested that anybody would know I was a Baptist 
after reading my second number. By way of explanation I here state 
that the Baptists were the pioneers of the Valley, and that no other 
orthodox denomination had a representation on these waters for many 
years after. Subsequently other denominations of good Christians 

38 



came and organized churches that were prosperous and did much good 
in the cause of reHgion. And of those churches I propose to make 
honorable mention at the proper dates. 

HIGH-BLOODED FEES AT THE TERM, APRIL, 1 796 

Alexander Barnett, Justice of the Peace, was fined £5 and the costs 
for charging Christopher Jackson high-blooded fees for official services. 

PERMANENT CLERK 

David May, who had been acting as clerk pro tem., produced a cer- 
tificate of his qualifications, was permanently appointed clerk and gave 
bond. His son, Samuel May, was sworn in as deputy. The term of the 
court was continued five days. 

ISAAC HYNES 

Previous to this time and from the beginning of the county, 
frequent mention has been made of the name of Isaac Hynes. The 
courts had been held in his house for more than two years. He was 
sheriff, and had a still house, which on one occasion was made a tem- 
porary jail, and against the sufficiency of which Isaac protested for 
reasons stated in my seventh chapter. 

He was in the habit of swearing, almost equal to Uncle Toby's army 
in Flanders, and of which the grand juries frequently made honorable 
mention, and by way of a change in his amusements now and then 
took a chunk of a fight. When I knew him he was a square-built man 
of middle age with a sprinkle of gray hairs — was considered rather 
beforehand in the world, always had money and was looked upon as 
quite a character in his day, had many friends and a few enemies. But 
how, when or where he wound up this deponent, not knowing, saith 
not, and I suppose there is not a white man living who could tell. 

There is one man in this town older than myself. His name is 
Charles Slaughter, a colored man, aged ninety-three years. I asked 
him what became of Isaac Hynes and he does not know. But as Charles 
Slaughter is a deserving man, sixty-seven years a member of the church, 
I expect to take notice of him in due time. 

SEPTEMBER TERM, 1 796 

At this time the population had increased — the rich soil abundantly 
repaid the husbandman for his toil and plenty filled the land, and, true 

39 



to the character of Old Virginia, the mother State, the inhabitants set 
no bounds to their hospitality. About this time my father erected a 
new house with a basement and two high stories upon it, with a stone 
chimney, .which took more than one hundred wagon loads to build it. 
It was considered then rather aristocratic. The large yellow poplar 
timbers of which it was erected are sound to this day — 1869. 

The court at this term directed Robert Hodgen to issue a summons 
against Robert Jackson, presented by the grand jury as coming under 
the vagrant law, and deal with him as the law directs. The law directed 
such gentry upon conviction to be sold for twelve months to the high- 
est bidder, and from my knowledge of the Squire charged with this 
service, I have no doubt that Jackson was cried off. at public sale. But 
as such plenty abounded, a few attempted to get a living by vagabond- 
izing. 

But to return to the new house. I do not remember the year, but 
it was when I was about ten years old, that remarkable day called cold 
Friday, rolled up in the calendar, no person before or since experienced 
such a day — clear as a bell and cold as Canada ; the air was filled with 
glistening, sparkling flakes of frost ; cows froze to death. On that day 
my younger brother. Roads Vanmeter and myself were set to beat a 
mess of hominy in the basement, being the cooking department, with a 
fireplace nearly seven feet wide, with a large fire in it. Neither of us 
being overly fond of work, we scrupulously divided the w^ork with an 
iron wedge inserted in a pestle. One hundred licks each in turn was 
administered to the corn in the mortar, occasionally pouring in hot 
water to excelerate the work, but the water almost instantly froze and 
the wedge sent back the sound chow, chow, chow, the whole being a 
frozen mass. At night we had no impression upon the corn and the 
work was adjourned over. 

The next day we cut out the frozen corn, put it in a pot over a hot 
fire and gave it two honest hours' boiling, then put it in the mortar and 
finished the work ; this completed, the trio formed themselves into a 
drum-head courtmartial to try the inventor of hominy beating, and the 
sentence was unanimous that the inventor ought to be hung. Neither 
of us ate of that hominy. 

40 



Perhaps this recital may appear trival, but it has hung upon my 
memory for sixty-four years, and I thought I might as well record it 
as a matter of history and let it cease to be a matter of tradition. 

AT THIS SAME TERxM, SEPTEMBER, 1 789 

From the records at this term it appears that some Spanish prisoners 
had been on hand and a considerable expense was incurred in guarding, 
handcuffing and taking them to Logan jail, but all the witnesses are 
dead. I am not able to state the cause of the arrest. 

I have some vague recollection of mule loads of gold being dis- 
tributed among some high officials in some way connected with the 
Spanish territory of which Missouri was a part. 

At this term a case came up for a breach of peace — James Nourse 
and Felix Grunday were attorneys for plaintiff and Rowan for de- 
fendant. The name of John Rowan appeared several times on record 
before this, but I have not been able to find where he was admitted to 
the bar. ^lore of him hereafter. 

TAKING TIME BY THE FORELOCK — OCTOBER TERM^ 1797 

The court appointed Samuel May clerk pro tempore, provided David 
May, the present clerk, departed this life. 

I would here note that David May was a highly esteemed gentleman 
and was the progenitor of all the Mays of this county. 

Hon. Joseph Barnett, having departed this life leaving an immense 
estate in lands, and his children being minors, the legislature of Ken- 
tucky, by a strange enactment, appointed Gen. Stephen Cleaver, Henry 
Rhodes and Harrison Taylor commissioners to manage and settle the 
estate. 

At this term in the case of Joseph Barnett's commissioners against 
Robert Baird, the court appointed Henry P. Brodnax, John Rowan, 
Felix Grunday, Newman Edwards, John Pope and Gabriel Johnson, or 
any three of these arbitrators in the case, and their award to be made 
the judgment of the court. 

All of these arbitrators were practicing lawyers in the Hardin Quar- 
ter Session Court. Their history is too well known to make it necessary 
to say that they were distinguished men. But I will say that such a 
galaxy of eminent men were hardly ever before charged with such a 

41 



case of private controversy. Either of these men was far ahead in 
legal knowledge, statesmanship and administrative capacity of some of 
our Presidents. In giving a history of the bar I shall have occasion to 
speak of them more in detail. Three of them were afterward judges of 
the Court of Appeals, one a circuit judge, one a minister to Mexico, two 
of them were senators in Congress, and one of them a member of Con- 
gress and one a governor. 

CHAPTER IX 

In my last chapter I had occasion to mention the commissioners of 
Joseph Barnett's estate. 

Many years after the reference of the case of Barnett's commis- 
sioners against Baird, while at Frankfort I was much amused in read- 
ing a petition of Joseph Barnett, Jr. (son of the deceased), to the Legis- 
lature, in which he set out in his peculiar sarcastic style : That his father 
had died "possessed of an estate in lands sufficient to set two tyrants at 
war and his children all of tender years. And the Legislature had 
undertaken to be guardians for the children, and their agents had ap- 
pointed three men as commissioners to manage and settle the estate; 
that these commissioners, while they were not dishonest, were too 
ignorant to be honest. 

"That the harpies, taking advantage of their want of business 
capacity, had hovered around, feasted, gorged and fattened themselves 
on the spoil, and that the bungling of the commissioners had frittered 
the estate away. That he wanted no more Legislature enactments on 
the subject, but just to stand out of his moonshine while he carried into 
Grant the numerous entries and surveys of land made by Joseph Barnett, 
now deceased." 

The commissioners were all honest men, but lacked business quali- 
fications ; without any disrespect to the memory of Harrison Taylor, 
for he was a good man, but claimed the right to have a dictionary of his 
own, and had as much right as Walker, Webster or Johnson to teach 
spelling. On one occasion he wrote to his merchant to send him a 
specific quantity of KAUGHPHY, managing in his orthography to 
spell the word with the complete sound, without using a solitary letter 
with which our bungling merchants were accustomed to spell, and who 

42 



knows but that he was right, and that speUing it COFFEE is an arbi- 
trary usage. 

In legal terms he also had his way ; wanting a process to compel 
the production of a paper, which process our lawyers term subpoena 
duces tecum, he applied for missile with a sharper edge, a writ of axim 
stickma. 

CLERKS RAPIDLY MADE AT FEBRUARY TERM, 1 798 

David May, the clerk, having departed this life, the court appointed 
John Helm to fill the vacancy, and he gave bond, with William McClung 
and George Helm as his securities, in the penalty of $3,000. George 
Helm produced a commission as sheriff and was ordered to qualify at 
the next term. On motion of John Helm, clerk, Maurice Miles was 
admitted as his deputy. Court adjourned 2nd day of the term. John 
Helm, who was appointed clerk on yesterday, resigned his office. 
Maurice Miles was appointed clerk and gave bond, with Felix Grundy 
and John Rowen as securities ; penalty, $3,000. Maurice Miles was a 
business man of fine promise, wr-ote a beautiful business hand, and 
would have made an excellent clerk, but he lived but a short time. 

Of John Helm, who held the office of clerk but one day, I propose 
in my next number to give an extended account, as having acted a 
prominent part in the thrilling events of the early settlement of the 
Valley. 

FIRST PRESS FOR PUBLIC PAPERS 

/ 

At the same term, February, 1798: 

"Ordered, That the clerk of this court employ a fit person to make 
a press for the public papers, at the public expense, and make a report to 
this court." 

That press was made of walnut wood, and was the only press in the 
office when I entered as deputy in 1809. 

The papers up to this time, say six years, had been kept in a basket 
and bread tray. The orders of court had previously been simply short 
minutes, and the greater part of the judginents were so indefinite that it 
required a reference to the papers of the suits to ascertain the amounts 
recorded. Even in the celebrated case of Barnett's commissioners 
against Baird, which had been referred to such eminent lawyers as 
arbitrators, a note was made by the clerk that an award was returned 

43 



and that award was made the judgment of the court. 

But what that' award was, after an intimate acquaintance with the 
office for nearly sixty years, I have never been able to learn, nor is there 
a man above ground that can tell. 

APRIL TERM, 1 798 

At this time Henry P. Brodnax produced a license and was sworn as 
attorney-at-law. 

(Note. — He had been previously sworn and admitted to the bar; 
perhaps he had been admitted before on the militia system, without 
license. I have spoken of him at length in my seventh chapter.) 

Richard Harris, Esq., produced a license and was sworn as attorney- 
at-law. 

The grand jury had little to do at this term, as appears by the fol- 
lowing entry : 

"The grand jury returned into court and made the following pre- 
sentment : 'We present Samuel Forrester for profane swearing (By 
God),' and having nothing further to present, w^ere discharged." 

This term lasted four days. The heaviest part of the docket was 
for and against Joseph Barnett's commissioners. 

The w'inding up of the term was an order authorizing the Common- 
wealth's Attorney to proceed legally, by information or otherwise, 
against John Lawson Hall for arson, in burning the house of Joseph 
Greenawalt, the court being of the opinion that the evidence was strong 
against him, and to make things secure Hall was bound over to keep the 
peace on the complaint of Nellie Greenawalt, the wife of Joseph. 

JUNE TERM, 1798 

' The grand jury presented a w^oman for having a child without the aid 
of a legal husband, deeming such proceeding a little out of order. 

The court directed George Berry, Esq., J. P., to pay attention to this 
little affair. 

The most specific entry of a judgment was at this term as follows : 
"Vanmetre vs. Sharp — judgment confessed for £2^ with interest 
from 7th, 1796 — (fee paid) and cost." 
Another not so definite as to interest : 
"Marshall vs. Parepoint — issue waived, judgment confessed for iio 
with interest from day it became due till paid, reserving equity." 

44 



JUNE TERM, 1799 

James Crutcher, Esq., produced commission as quarter session jus- 
tice from James Garrard, governor, was sworn and took his seat. 

Maurice Miles, the clerk of this court, having departed this life, 
Major Ben Helm was appointed clerk pro tempore and gave bond, with 
John Rowan and Felix Grundy his sureties — penalty, $3,000. 

James Nourse, Esq., attorney for the Commonwealth, having de- 
parted this life, his administrators were allowed £15 for the year 1799. 

APRIL TERM, 180O 

Samuel Brunts, Esq., was appointed and sworn as Commonwealth's 
Attorney pro tempore. 

Brunts, w-ho afterward corrected the spelling of the family name to 
Brents, most likely the proper name, was sworn in several terms back, 
was an eminent lawyer, lived in Greensburg, and was afterward a mem- 
ber of the State Legislature, and afterward died in Greensburg of 
cholera in 1832 or 33. 

MARCH TERM, l802 

Samuel Haycraft produced commission and took his seat as quarter 
session justice. 

Robert Wicklifife and John W. Holt, Esqs., sworn as attorneys. 

SEPTEMBER TERM, 1805 

Nathaniel Wickliffe sworn as deputy clerk. 

The record of the court's proceeding at this term were not signed 
by the judge. 

REMARKS 

Fearing that my readers have become wearied with the dull routine 
of court business, which has been given perhaps at the expense of 
patience of the reading public as rather prolix and ceased to be interest- 
ing, I will omit them in the future, and remark that the proceedings of 
the courts up to the conclusion of September, 1802, were occasionally 
signed by the Rev. Judge Joseph Barnett and Judge Vertrees, but the 
great majority of the signatures was by the venerable Judge Thomas 
Helm, who appears to have been present at every term. 

The old system of summoning jurors from the bystanders and run- 
ning down men then existed, and they got no pay ; and it was usual 

45 



when the judges directed the sheriff to summon a jury that the court 
house was cleared in short order, and men might be seen, as if running 
for life, and the tails of their coats and hunting shirts sailing behind 
as they broke to the brush and tall grass, where they sometimes fell 
into yellow jackets' nests. 

Perhaps as good an illustration of the jury system then in vogue as 
could be given occurred in the early courts of Indiana, perhaps out 
of my bounds, but it will bring up the thing naked. 

In a round log cabin for a court house, with a pole across, dividing 
his honor from the masses of the people, the judge asked the sheriff 
if he had a jury ready. The sheriff replied that he had eleven tied up 
in the loft, and that the deputy was running down the twelfth. 

Witnesses were allowed two shillings and sixpence per day and were 
not very apt to attend punctually, and many were summoned and fined 
for non-attendance. 

The clerk kept no witness book up to this time, 1802, but their at- 
tendance was noted in the proceedings of the court. 

Here endeth the second lesson on courts, being the death of the 
quarter session court system. 

CHAPTER X 

In my last chapter I promised to speak of John Helm, who was 
appointed clerk and resigned the office after holding it one day. He 
was born on 26th of November, 1761, in Prince William county, Vir- 
ginia, and was the eldest son of Judge Thomas Helm, frequently spoken 
of in this history. His father landed on the Falls of the Ohio, near 
Louisville,, in March, 1780, and at the close of the year removed to the 
Valley and built a fort. John Helm at nineteen years of age came to 
Kentucky, one year before his father's removal from Virginia. For 
those times he was well educated for a practical surveyor. He was of 
small stature, and not remarkable for strength or activity, the qualities 
that most adorned the forest gentleman of that day ; but possessing a 
firm constitution, with great steadiness of purpose and habits, he was 
enabled to perform the most astonishing labor and to endure the great- 
est sufferings. 

46 



The qualities of his mind were well suited to his business, possessing 
in a superior degree a sound and discriminating judgment, united with 
patient and untiring investigation, and moral courage. 

On reaching Kentucky he immediately commenced the dangerous 
occupation of locating and surveying lands, for which he had been 
educated. 

His first trip was perhaps his most unfortunate, and as I cannot 
go into a detail of all, I will notice this and pass on. Having formed 
the usual company for surveys in those times, he commenced operations 
not far from the mouth of Salt River, accompanied by William John- 
ston, the father of the late Dr. Johnston, of the city of Louisville, for 
whom he was then surveying, a company of Indians having discovered 
them, and knowing their business, waylaid them while in the active em- 
ployment of running a line. The Indians squatting in the small cane, 
through which they had to pass, as they came up fired, and rising up at 
the same moment, rushed upon them with their usual terrible yell. Mr. 
Helm being a little in advance, was in the midst of the Indians at the 
moment of the attack. The Indians, thinking him their captive, turned 
their attention to those in the rear. He used the fortunate moment, and 
passing through them made his escape. The others were killed or 
taken prisoners. Among the latter was William Johnston, and Helm 
alone remained to tell that all was lost. 

Soon, another set of instruments being procured and the necessary 
arrangements made, young Helm again commenced the hazardous occu- 
pation, experience having taught him the necessity of caution in all his 
movements. The theater upon which he acted being generally between 
green and Salt rivers, many were the trials and sufferings through which 
he passed. The hairbreadth escapes and thrilling incidents of living in 
a constant state of warfare, sometimes driven from their work by the 
Indians, and at other times suffering from fatigue, cold and want of 
food ; sometimes in assisting to defend his father's fort when attacked 
by the Indians, which was often the case ; at other times venturing to the 
assistance of some neighboring fort, often forming one of a little band 
of volunteers to drive of? a maraudering gang of Indians who were com- 
mitting depredations upon the neighborhood. 

Yet scenes of blood and strife will become familiar, and in the midst 
of them there will be marrying and giving in marriage. On the 22nd of 

47 



March, 1787, young Helm was married to Miss Sallie Brown, in Hay- 
craft's fort, in the same neighborhood. In 1791 he went out in St. 
Clair's campaigns as a common soldier. But his capacity for business 
and superior education, more uncommon in those days than at present, 
could not long be overlooked. He performed all or nearly all the duties 
appertaining to the officers in Colonel Oldham's regiment of Kentucky 
militia, which formed one division of St. Clair's army. The regular 
troops formed the other division. Colonel Oldham and Mr. Helm being 
connected by marriage (Helm's mother being a Pope and Colonel Old- 
ham's wife being a Pope) as well as by official relationship in the army, 
were on the most intimate terms and fully in each other's secrets. They 
were greatly dissatisfied with St. Clair's disposition of the army the 
night before the fatal battle. Oldham remonstrated with St. Clair and 
told him of the danger before him, but to no effect, and finally parted 
with him the evening before the battle with the prophetic warning that 
history would have to record the tale of sorrow which would fie the 
result of blunders then making. Neither Oldham nor any of his prin- 
cipal officers slept that night. A little before day Mr. Helm was sent 
on a trip of discovery beyond the lines of the army, and while he was 
on this service the attack was commenced, the Indians "rushing upon 
Oldham's division, which was about half a mile in advance of the 
main army, a small river or large creek between them. 

Mr. Helm, taking a circuitous route, reached the ford and waded 
over with the retreating division. Immediately after crossing the river 
he met with Colonel Oldham, and while in conversation about the best 
course to pursue Colonel Oldham received a ball, passing through his 
body, and he fell. The Indians being in hot pursuit and near at hand. 
Helm could only stay a moment to receive the Colonel's dying message 
to his wife. 

As history records all the particulars of this bloody scene, my pur- 
pose is only to speak of Mr. Helm as one of the actors on that occasion. 

Assisted by the officers of the Kentucky division, he made every 
exertion to ward off the dreadful horrors of that day by trying to keep 
the way clear so that the army could retreat in some sort of order. 
They continued their exertions till scarcely one was left who was not 
dying or wounded. 

48 



Mr. Helm, while in the act of touching the trigger to shoot an Indian 
who was doing great mischief, received a ball in his left arm, shattering 
one of the bones from the wrist to the elbow. Thus disabled, he fell 
back among the wounded and dying, and for some time saw the efforts 
to regain possession of that point which he and his comrades had strug- 
gled so hard to hold. But St. Clair had committed the second great 
blunder and streams of blood had to be poured out before that important 
point was again obtained. 

Some of the best and bravest officers of the Regular Army fell here, 
and several unsuccessful charges were made to no effect. By this time 
rain and death engulfed the army all around ; no place was safe, the 
wounded often receiving the second and more fatal shot where they lay. 
Air. Helm had no less than seven bullets passing through his clothes. 

Seeing death or escape the only alternative and being surrounded by 
the enemy on every side, Major Patrick Brown, Captain Thomas (since 
General Thomas), Stephen Cleaver (since General Cleaver), Mr. Helm 
and a few others concluded to make a last desperate attempt to open a 
passage through the Indian lines, the only possible way by which to 
retreat. The Indians were doubly prepared, having twice resisted 
charges made by a division of the regular soldiers, but these men 
thought it was nothing but death any way and determined to make a 
trial for life. Their plans being settled, they called long and loud for 
Kentuckians to make a rush for home. That word home had a talis- 
manic effect. Their young wives and little children shot up before the 
mind's eye and nerved them for the struggle, and with a desperate shout 
they charged the Indians without firing a gun. The Indians for a 
moment seemed to be panic stricken, yielded for them to pass, whilst the 
balance of the shattered army, as if by one impulse, followed after. 

Mr. Helm, with the feelings and true spirit of a back woodsman, 
clung to his rifle — that treasure to be parted with only in death, his arm- 
bone broken and shattered as before mentioned — carrying his rifle, ran 
and marched with the army upwards of thirty miles that day. The suf- 
ferings from such a wound would have been great under the most 
favorable circumstances and best treatment, but awful indeed must they 
have been in a wilderness, with such treatment and accommodations 
as could be given in a retreating and defeated army, yet after months 
of suffering Helm returned to his family and was restored to health. 

49 



This closed the Indian fighting and he again resumed his occupation 
as surveyor. The Indians were no longer regarded as an object of 
dread and terror. The balance of his life was spent in active and useful 
labor, mostly as surveyor. He acted as county surveyor many years 
in Washington county, where he removed, and was associate judge in 
that county under the old system, and was a neat and thrifty farmer. 
He afterward removed to Breckinridge county and there farmed exten- 
sively, and finally removed to Elizabethtown. He had no political aspira- 
tions ; although often urged, he never was a candidate for office before 
the people. He accumulated a considerable fortune, considering the 
theater upon which he acted and the county in which he lived ; for these 
things are comparative, at least, yet few men ever came as near living 
and dying without an enemy. He died at his residence in Elizabethtown 
on the 3rd day of April, 1840, having been a faithful member of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church for seven years. 

The foregoing notice of the Hon. John Helm is principally taken 
from his memoir (not only as to facts but nearly as to language), writ- 
ten in 1840 by his son, the Hon. B. Helm, now of Hannibal, Missouri. 

CHAPTER XI 

QUARTER SESSION AND DISTRICT COURTS ABOLISHED AND CIRCUIT COURTS 

ESTABLISHED 

On the 20th day of December, 1802, the Legislature abolished the 
quarter session courts; on the 21st of the same month an amendment 
was made, by which the district courts were established. 

A circuit court to be held in each county, to be composed of one cir- 
cuit judge and two assistant judges. Nine judges were commissioned 
by the governor, by and with the consent of the Senate, for the State at 
large. Those judges, at a general court assembled at Frankfort, the 
capital, on the 4th Monday in January, 1803 ; and allotted to each judge 
his circuit and by allotment, the Hon. Stephen Ormsby was to preside 
in the counties of Nelson, Jefferson, Bullitt and Hardin. This allotment 
was given under the hands and seals of the following judges: 

Samuel McDowell, John Colburn, B. Thurston, Stephen Ormsby, 
James G. Hunter, John Allen, Christopher Greenup and Allen Milton 
Wakefield. 

so 



HARDIN CIRCUIT COURT 

On the i8th day of April, 1803, the Hon. Stephen Ormsby, circuit 
judge, and the Hon. Samuel Haycraft, and William Munford, assistant 
judges, organized the first circuit court in Elizabethtown. 

CLERK -APPOINTED 

Major Ben Helm, who produced a certificate of qualification from 
under the hands and seals of the Hons. George Muter, Benjamin 
Sebastian and Caleb Wallace, judges of the Court of Appeals, was ap- 
pointed clerk and gave bond, with Felix Grundy and Robert WicklifTe 
as securities. 

The assistant judges were sworn before Asa Combs, Esq., justice 
of the peace and tavern keeper. 

Alexander Pope, Esq., by consent of the court, undertook to prose- 
cute as county attorney. 

Felix Grundy, John W. Holt, Robert Wickliffe and Alexander Pope 
sworn and admitted as attorneys-at-law. 

Nathaniel WicklifTe sworn as deputy clerk. 

RULE DAYS 

were appointed to be held in the clerk's office on Saturday after the 3rd 
Monday in each month. The object of rule days was intended for par- 
ties to prepare for trial and to file with the clerk their answers, pleas, 
republications, etc. The clerk kept a docket for that purpose, and 
when both parties were ready, cocked and primed, their cases were 
transferred to a trial of reference docket, then the case came before the 
court and jury, and many men then had to experience the glorious 
uncertainty of the law, the winners always admitting that a Daniel had 
come to judgment, and the losers asseverating that they were the vic- 
tims of the blindness and superstition of fellow man, and although the 
rule docket has long since been dispensed with, yet the return days of 
executions in the Hardin Circuit Court has been the same days for sixty 
years to 1869. 

The clerk was authorized to issue executions on all judgments of 
the quarter session courts now defunct. Having thus organized, the 
court adjourned until the next day at 7 o'clock a. m., at which time they 
met, examined and signed the orders and adjourned. 

(Signed) Stephen Ormsby. 
51 



JULY TERM, 1803 A NEW JUDGE 

The general court having made a new allotment of circuits, the Hon. 
Christopher Greenup was allotted to the counties of Henry, Hardin, 
Livingston and Ohio. 

This allotment signed by the same judges, with the addition of the 
name of the Hon. Ninian Edwards. 

PRESENT 

Hon. Christopher Greenup, circuit judge, and Samuel Haycraft, 
assistant judge. 

David Trimble sworn as attorney-at-law. 

SECOND DAY 

H. p. Brodnax sworn as attorney-at-law. 

This term lasted six days — each day's business signed 

Christopher Greenup. 

OCTOBER term, 1803 

Present — Hon. Samuel Haycraft and William Munford. 
The clerk recorded all the indictments in the order book — rather 
tedious. 

SECOND DAY 

Present also, Hon. Christopher Greenup, judge. 

APRIL term, 1804 — circuit CHANGED 

Hon. Christopher Greenup allotted to the counties of Henry, Hardin, 
Muhlenburg and Ohio. 
Commonwealth 

vs. i-On indictment of murdering Robert Kennedy. 

F. Parepoint. 
Parepoint surrendered himself ; was put upon trial and found not 
guilty. 

The circumstances were : Parepoint had a process to arrest Ken- 
nedy on a penal charge. Kennedy and his wife were attending preach- 
ing at the old Baptist meeting house on the hill, where Mr. I. Robin 
Jacob now resides. Kennedy was ordered to stand, but chose to run, 
was shot in the back and died next day, and was buried in Vertrees' old 
graveyard, where some forty or fifty others were buried, near a spring 

52 



on the hill, owned by Dr. Harvey Slaughter. Although I witnessed the 
interment at nine years old, I could not, nor can any living man, desig- 
nate his or any other solitary grave, nor are there ten men living that 
could find the graveyard. This is sufficient to show the impolicy, if not 
absurdity, of burying in private graveyards. 

A SHOOTING AFFRAY 

Isaac Bush, son of the original Christopher Bush, of this town, 
being at Hardinsburg, a dispute arose between Isaac and one Elijah 
Hardin, son of William Hardin. During the difficulty Hardin shot 
Bush in the back. Doctors were called in, who proposed to tie Bush 
while they cut out the bullet. Bush had so much reliance on his pluck 
that he refused to be tied, laid down on a bench with a musket ball in 
his mouth, which he chewed to pieces while the surgeons cut, nine inches 
in length and one inch deep, before they got the bullet. Bush never 
wincing during the operation. 

Hardin being a minor, Bush sued the father, William Hardin, for 
assault. 

The case was submitted to Horace Beardsly, Thomas Owen, John 
W. Holt, Esq., and Judge James Crutcher, who returned their award at 
April term, 1804, for $1,500 damages, which was made the judgment of 
the court. Elijah Hardin was afterward shot and killed by Friend 
McAfahon. 

JULY TERM, 1804 — A NEW JUDGE 

The general court had made an allotment, and on. Henry P. Brod- 
nax was allotted to preside in Henry, Hardin, Muhlenburg and Ohio 
counties, and took his seat with Haycraf t and Munford, assistant judges. 

At this time it was the rules of court to spread all bills of exceptions 
on the order book at length, and to recite the substances of all indict- 
ments and presentments, and to record awards of arbitrators and the 
pleadings. I noticed one exception covering fifteen pages of a large 
order book. 

John Furgeson was the jailer. 

OCTOBER TERM, 1804 

William P. Duvall, William Watkins and George P. Strauther, Esq., 
sworn as attorneys-at-law. 

53 



Alexander Pope, Esq., county attorney, allowed $80, and the County 
Court ordered to pay. 

APRIL TERM, 1805 

Henry Davidge admitted as attorney-at-law. 

APRIL, 1806 
Joseph Chaffin was jailer, and constable and butcher. 
Butchers, by the way, shot down a beef and skinned it on the ground, 
quartered it as it lay, then taking up smoking hot, cut up with an axe in 
sizes to suit customers at i^ cents per pound for forequarter and 2 
cents per pound for hindquarter. However, the butcher's first opera- 
tion was to cut the neck and shanks and shins into small pieces, and a 
piece of it was put on and weighed with each customer's parcel under 
the name of mustard. 

f JULY TERM, 1806 CAUSES FOR NEW TRIAL 

In the case of Jonathan Payne against Martin H. Wicklilfe the de- 
fendant moved for a new trial, and among other grounds alleged that 
after the jury had retired and before agreeing, did eat, drink, fiddle and 
dance. And that persons not of the jury were admitted and joined with 
the jury in drinking, reveling and carousing ; and when they were 
wearied down with their Bacchanalian debauch, concluded to make up a 
verdict upon the principle of addition and division, each set down his 
amount, added the whole up and then divided by twelve. 

The judge gave a written opinion and descanted largely upon the 
custom in England — that jurors after they retired were not permitted 
to eat or drink before they made up their verdict. But as this was a 
land of plenty, it would not do to apply the rule here so rigidly, as a little 
necessary food taken in a decent way might strengthen the inner man 
so as to aid him in his deliberations. 

APRIL, 1807 
Thomas B. Read and Robert C. Hall admitted as attorneys. 
Hon. Thomas B. Read was a tall, portly and handsome man, fond 
of fine dress, and was a gentleman in his deportment. He removed 
to Mississippi, from which State he was Senator in Congress in 1826-27, 
also in 1829, and died suddenly at Lexington, Ky., when on his way to 
Washington, November 26, 1829. He was in the meridian of life and a 
man of talent. 

54 



CHAPTER XII 

OCTOBER TERM, 1807 — CIRCUIT COURT 

John Moore, Esq., qualified as attorney-at-law. 

APRIL 2^, 1808 
John Miller and James Breckinridge sworn as attorneys. 
Jack Thomas admitted as deputy clerk. Jack Thomas deserves some 
special notice. The county of Grayson was made by the Legislature in 
the winter of 1809-10. The first term of the court was held in May, 
1810. Jack Thomas and Mr. Thornsberry were candidates for the 
clerkship. Thomas was under 21 years of age, and could not receive 
a permanent appointment. The Hon. H. P. Brodnax was then presid- 
ing judge and voted for Thornsberry. Judge Brodnax decided that a 
minor could not hold the office, even as a pro tern, clerk, but the two 
assistant judges decided differently and voted for Thomas as clerk 
pro tem. 

Brodnax decided it illegal and left the bench, and did not sit in that 
court again until Thomas became of full age, but was always present as 
a spectator. In that time he became well acquainted with Mr. Thomas 
and was much pleased with him as an excellent and efiicient officer, and 
ever afterward treated him with great respect, and I cannot give a bet- 
ter history of that excellent man than to republish a letter I wrote to 
the Louisville Democrat on the occasion of Jack Thomas' death. Here 
it is : 

"Elizabethtown, July 9, 1865. 

"Editors Louisville Democrat : 

'T have just learned that my old friend and relation, Jack Thomas, 
Esq., departed this life at his residence in Leitchfield, Grayson county, 
Ky., on the 5th day of July, 1865. 

"If a man could imagine how he would feel on losing one-half of 
himself, and yet survive, it might probably approximate my senses of 
bereavement by this dispensation of Providence. 

"Jack Thomas and myself commenced this world poor boys together 
in the early existence of the State. He was born on the 7th day of Feb- 
ruary, 1790. His father resided in a house the joiner's work of which 
was done by Thomas Lincoln, father of the President. 

55 



"While Jack was at school (in town) the late Ben Helm, Esq., needed 
a deputy in 1807 or 1808. He went to the school-room and examined 
the copy books ; the result was that my friend, a ruddy, handsome lad, 
was chosen as deputy, and a better choice could not have been made 
in searching the State. 

"In October I entered the same office and at once fell in love with 
Jack, and from that day until the day of his death he and myself were 
inseparable and devoted friends. 

"In May, 1810, he was appointed clerk of the Grayson Circuit Court ; 
also in the same year clerk of the County Court. Soon after (in 1817) 
I became clerk of the courts in Hardin. We commenced an interchange 
of services, he assisting me three terms in Hardin and I assisting him 
three terms in Grayson each year. 

"This interchange continued many years, and if I knew any man to 
the bottom of his soul it was Jack Thomas. He carried his heart in 
his -hand — open, generous, frank. If he knew anything of the arts of 
duplicity, concealment or deception, I never knew him to avail himself 
of it. He was a gentleman of the olden time. In due time we each had 
a family, and each of our houses was the other's welcome home. 

"Until he was down by disease he was the personification of innocent 
hilarity and cheerfulness; his house was the seat of refined and gen- 
erous hospitality, and nobody could know Jack Thomas as I did with- 
out loving and admiring him. He was proverbially an honest, upright 
man — liberal and charitable to a fault, making all his associates around 
him easy and happy. 

"He was fortunate in the choice of a wife. Miss Jane Hundly, who 
proved to be in the true sense of the word a helpmate indeed, and for 
more than fifty years stood by him, the true hearted, painstaking, as- 
siduous and profitable wife and devoted Christian. They litterally lived 
for their children and united their counsels for promoting the interest, 
their chief aim being that they might occupy a respectable stand in 
society. The family consisted of five sons and three daughters, \vho 
all surround their father with many grandchildren. 

"The season of joy to the united couple was the periodical family 
gatherings as the sons and daughters stole off from the busy turmoils 
of life for a season of repose under the paternal roof. Aye, those were 
seasons of happiness that were felt by others as well as the household 

56 



and enlivened Leitchfield, and suffice it to say that in the close of life he 
could look back upon his descendants without the pain of seeing a soli- 
tary blot and the most of them pushing forward and making their mark 
in the world. 

"His last illness was painful and protracted, and I regret that I was 
not permitted to see him from the commencement of the war. But I 
learn that during his affliction the kind attention of his devoted wife 
was unremitting. She never left his dying couch for more than a 
moment, anticipating his wants and administering to his relief as only 
an angel wife could do. It softened his bed and saved his heart as 
far as human aid could accomplish — robbed death of its sting. 

"May the Lord sustain her under this heavy affliction. But why 
repine ? He has lived his threescore and fifteen years — done much good, 
set good examples and influenced for good in his circle. 

"The first time I visited Leitchfield, some fifty years ago, Jack 
Thomas lived there ; the last time I visited that town Jack Thomas lived 
there ; but now Leitchfield would not be Leitchfield to me — yet why 
regret? I shall soon follow. Samuel Haycraft." 

HARDIN CIRCUIT^JUNE TERM, 1808 

Present — Stephen Ormsby, circuit judge, and Samuel Haycraft, 
assistant judge. Philip Quinton, Esq., paid one dollar for contempt. 
He Avas a practicing attorney, but I cannot find where he was admitted. 

SEPTEMBER TERM, 1808 CIRCUIT COURT 

The circuit judge being absent, Samuel Haycraft and William Mun- 
ford, then assistant judges, held the term; the orders were signed by 
Samuel Haycraft. 

Rev. Benjamin Ogden, a Methodist preacher, was the jailer. 

MARCH TERM, iSOQ 

Present — Stephen Ormsby, judge, and Samuel Haycraft, judge. 

Samuel Carpenter sworn as attorney-at-law. 

Samuel Carpenter resided at Bardstown. Studied law under Judge 
Brodnax. He was one of the most critical statute lawyers in Kentucky. 

He was afterward circuit judge, and was remarkable for the dispatch 
of business, and the complaint against him was that he met too soon and 
adjourned too late. Governor Helm, who resided one mile from town, 

57 



said he was obliged to shave and shirt himself the night before in order 
to be in court in time in the morning. On one occasion, having business 
in LaRue court, I stayed all night with my old friend, Daniel Williams, 
six miles from Hodgenville, when Judge Carpenter was holding court. 
My old friend gave me breakfast and let me off before day, which 
enabled me to reach the town before sunup, when I found that the 
Judge had friend Stone, the clerk, reading the orders before breakfast 
at his hotel. Stephen complained that he was not allowed to attend to 
his sick wife, or to eat his meals; but the Judge was inexorable — the 
business must be done. But at the next term Stephen stretched out the 
docket so that the Judge was obliged to bring a clean shirt with him, 
and allowed himself time enough to draw his breath. 

Judge Carpenter was also a preacher and made a contribution of 
$400 to build a Baptist Church in Bardstown, and afterward expended 
a large amount in completing the house. The church became so largely 
indebted to him that he became sole owner of the building. Some years 
afterward he sold the house to the Baptists, for whom it was originally 
erected. 

He left the Baptist Church and connected himself with the Reform- 
ers, who styled themselves the Christian Church. He was a rapid 
speaker and displayed great zeal in the delivery of his discourse. He 
had an amiable wife and family. He departed this life several years 
since, and in many respects was a remarkable and conscientious man. 

SEPTEMBER TERM, 1809 

At the last term Philip Read was sworn in as assistant judge. He 
was a good judge of law. He removed to Nelson county and lived there 
a number of years, a prominent and useful citizen. 

James Furgeson sworn as attorney-at-law. Furgeson was a lawyer 
of some note, but was at daggers' points with Judge Ormsby. He kept 
a note of all the Judge's decisions. Shortly after he quit the practice of 
law in Hardin and confined himself in Louisville, where he acquired 
considerable property, but always lived in fear of starving, and that fear 
pressed upon him so hard that he took his own life to prevent starva- 
tion. He died a bachelor. When he started out to practice law he was 
a fine dressed man and traveled with a servant, in the style of that 
day, the servant at a respectable distance behind with a large port- 

58 



manteau on the crupper, a glazed hat in his hand and a brace of horse- 
man's pistols at the pommel — that was the style of the lordly gentleman 
of that day. But as he grew rich his pride of dress left him and he 
could often be seen with threadbare apparel. 

When Furgeson was sworn in Judge Ormsby left the bench and the 
court was conducted by the assistant judges — orders signed by Samuel 
Haycraft. 

CHAPTER XIII 

HARDIN CIRCUIT COURT MARCH TERM, 181O 

Present — Hon. Stephen Ormsby, and Phillip Read, assistant judge. 
Hon. James Crutcher sworn as assistant judge in the room of 
Samuel Haycraft, resigned. 

CONTESTED ELECTION 

Samuel Haycraft, Esq., last year ran for the Legislature, and was 
elected over Gen. John Thomas. The latter contested the election on 
the ground that Haycraft was assistant judge at the time of his election. 

The case came up before the House of Representatives and it was 
referred to a committee, of which the Hon. Henry Clay was chairman. 

The committee reported that Thomas was not entitled to the seat, 
as he was in the minority of votes ; also that Haycraft could not hold the 
seat, as he was in office as assistant judge at the time he was elected, 
and a new election was ordered. Haycraft having resigned, he and 
Thomas ran the race over, and by the extraordinary efiforts of Thomas' 
friends he beat Haycraft a few votes. 

By an act of the Legislature clerks were required to give a bond in 
the penalty of $10,000. At this term Major Ben Helm, the clerk, re- 
newed his bond, with Worden Pope and William P. Duval as his securi- 
ties. 

SOCIAL TIMES 

At this time taverns were scarce in Elizabethtown. The orators. 
John Hays and Greenberry A. Gaither, Esq., were regular boarders with 
Major Ben Helm, the clerk, and to these were added at court times 
Governor William P. Duval. Worden Pope, Alexander Pope and Fred- 
erick W. S. Grayson. Esqs. 

59 



I was then a young deputy in the office and ate at the same well- 
provided table, presided over by Major Helm and his accomplished lady, 
Mrs. Mary Helm, and at each meal it was a feast of reason and flow of 
soul as those intellectual and social gentlemen sat around the family 
board and enlivened each occasion by their conversation and often by 
their facetious remarks. It opened a new world to me, and I shall ever 
remember it with a keen sense of delight. But now they are all dead 
but Mrs. Helm, who is still alive at the age of ninety-two years. She 
is one of the remarkable women of the time ; a kinder heart never 
throbbed in woman's bosom, always dignified and pleasant, and to 
this day retains her eyesight so perfectly that she amuses herself in 
hemstitching without the use of spectacles, living in the same house 
with her son Henry B. Helm, passing her days in tranquillity, having 
an independent support, and her delight is to see her friends and con- 
verse about religion and about old times, and I have repeatedly re- 
marked that I thought the material of which she is composed is nearly 
used up. 

She was the daughter of the late Benjamin Edwards and a sister 
of Governor Ninian Edwards, and of Cyrus Edwards and B. F. Ed- 
wards, the latter of whom celebrated his golden wedding on the 28th 
day of September, 1869. 

It was my good fortune to be under the tutelage of his excellent 
lady and her husband. Major Ben Helm, from the age of fourteen until 
I was twenty-one years old, and to them I owe a debt of gratitude for 
their wholesome counsel and good example, which I trust has had its 
influence upon me in a position favorable to my welfare and place in 
society. 

And as my course is nearly run and the sands of life nearly ex- 
hausted, being in my 75th year, I hope I will be excused for naming 
another friend, now no more, for whose kindness to me I can never 
be sufficiently grateful. I mean the late Hon. John Helm, of whom 
I have given a sketch in my tenth number. It is a maxim that 

A friend in need 
Is a friend indeed. 

He not only relieved me from heavy pecuniary embarrassments, but 
gave me his daughter to wife, who has stood by me as a pillar of 
strength, true and faithful, for more than fifty years. 

60 



I omitted to state that at ]\rarch term, 1810, Frederick W. S. Gray- 
son and Thomas Clark were sworn as attorneys-at-law. 

Grayson was formerly and perhaps at that time was clerk of the 
Bullitt Circuit Court, which office he resigned and removed to Louisville, 
and there had a lucrative practice as a lawyer. 

Thomas Clark was from Virginia; resided at that time in Breckin- 
ridge county, and came to his death by eating some poisonous herb 
which he mistook for Indian physic. 

SEPTEMBER TERM, 181O 

Hon. Fortunatius Cosby, circuit judge, and Philip Read, assistant 
judge. 

MARCH TERM, 181I 

Joseph Allen, Robert Miller and Greenberry A. Gaither, Esqs., 
sworn as attorneys. Samuel Haycraft, Jr., sworn as deputy clerk. He 
came into the office in 1809. 

OCTOBER TERM, l8ir 

This term was held by the assistant judges, Hon. James Crutcher 
and Philip Read. All orders were signed by James Crutcher. 

MARCH TERM, l8l2 

William Little sworn as attorney-at-law. Hon. Judge Fortunatus 
Cosby presiding. 

The Judge was an amiable, pleasant gentleman, was polite to the bar 
and officers of the court, and had borne a great deal from the bar. About 
this time rather a rebellious feeling existed among the lawyers, they 
professing to be able to teach the Judge and openly call in question his 
decisions. This proved to be the last feather on the camel's back. The 
ire of the amiable old gentleman was aroused and he determined to put 
his foot down emphatically and to exact obedience in the bar, and to the 
dismay of all malcontents, had a rule spread upon the book in these 
words : 

"Be it a rule of this court for the future, that when the court shall 
deliver an opinion in any case, no member of the bar shall say anything 
more on the subject, unless leave being first obtained from the court, 
under the penalty of a fine." 

61 



As an obedient deputy clerk, I entered that rule upon the book in 
my own peculiar copy-plate style. 

Note — The Judge had just signed a bill of exceptions, and having 
thus asserted his prerogative, adjourned court until next morning, so 
that matters might cool down. 

Next day, March 12, 1812, Richard Rudd, Esq., sworn as attorney- 
at-law. 

ANOTHER RULE 

"Be it a rule of this court for the future that in no case shall more 
than two lawyers on each side of a case be heard, unless by leave of 
court." 

JUNE TERM, 1812 

Horatio Waide produced commission as assistant judge. 

SEPTEMBER TERM, l8l2 

Court held by the two assistant judges, Hons. Squire LaRue and 
Horatio Weide. 

Joshua Novell sworn as attorney-at-law. 

Grand jury indicted Barbara Vance for retailing spirituous liquors 
without license ; also for keeping a disorderly house ; also for swearing 
one oath. All true bills. 

Barbara kept a doggery in the present Jones house above the Eagle 
House, the only log house now standing of that ancient date, except the 
old cabin that the father of President Lincoln lived in. Barbara was 
rather a heavy case. She had a child one night ; next morning she 
scrubbed her floor and went ahead. She had a suit in court this term 
against Bill Gibbons for assault and battery. Bill Gibbons was rather 
a rare fowl — about 6 feet 3 inches high, always ready for fun or fight, 
whichever was most convenient. He was a saddler, and kept his shop in 
the same room with Jack Kindle, a tailor. Jack stitched cloth at one end 
and Bill stitched leather at the other end of the room. Jack was born 
a cripple, was diminutive in size, but had a large head, full of native wit, 
and went on crutches. 

One day Gibbons was absent and on his return Jack told him that 
a man had been in who wanted a horse collar, but he did not sell him 
one. Bill swore that if he refused to sell for him again he would whip 
him. 

62 



Bill was out again and on his return Jack told him that he had sold a 
collar for him. "Why," says Bill, "it was not finished." "I know that," 
says Jack ; "it lacked a cap, and I gave him a sheepskin to finish it with, 
and a pair of bridle reins to sew it with." 

"Where is the money left Bill?" "Oh," says Jack, "he did not pay 
for it." "What was his name?" asked Bill. "I don't know," replied 
Jack. "But I can prove it by a man that stood at the window with a 
white hat on his head." "And what was his name?" inquired Bill. 
Jack replied that he did not know. 

Bill flew into a rage and was about to slash Jack. But Jack cooled 
him down by remarking that he was certain of his money, for the pur- 
chaser was a Christian. "How do you know that?" says Bill. "Why," 
says Jack, "I saw him stump his toe and he did not swear." 

Notwithstanding Jack was such a cripple, he was fond of a game of 
cards. One evening Jack, sitting on his counter a la tailor, was pokering 
with Colonel Miller. Thinking that the Colonel played foul. Jack struck 
him with his crutch and then hit the Colonel's finger and slid under the 
counter. The Colonel was asked why he took it. He replied that the 
little varment seized his finger and ran into an augur hole and he could 
not get to him. 

CHAPTER XIV 

.■\ NEW ERA IN THE CIRCUIT COURT SYSTEM — THE ONE-MAN POVv'ER — 

MARCH TERM, 1806 

Present — Hon. Forts. Cosby, sole presiding judge. 

Hon. Charles A. Wickliflfe produced a commission as common- 
wealth's attorney. 

In charging the grand jury he was pouring a broadside of hot shot 
into vagrants — that vagabondizing set, sleek and fat ; that never worked ; 
snatched a meal here and there ; always had money enough to drink and 
gamble on ; a pest to society and an excrescence on the body politic. 

An eccentric and honest farmer named Joseph Monin being present 
in court, was so excited by the speech of the attorney he could hold in no 
longer and swore that they were thieves and stole their way in the 
world and ought to be cowhided, tarred and feathered, and at last got 

63 



into such a frenzy that he pronounced severe anathemas upon men who 
would not work and continued his loud, vociferations until he exhausted 
the patience of Judge Cosby, and he ordered Uncle Joe to jail for two 
hours, thinking that his honest wrath would subside in that time. At 
the end of the two hours he was returned into court, and it appeared 
that his pentup wrath had only gained strength and he vociferated louder 
than ever against vagrants. The Judge sent him to jail for six hours 
and during that time his indignation abated. 

SAMUEL STEVENSON VS. JOHN ECCLES 

Suit for the mismanagement as attorney for Stevenson, whereby 
Stevenson was nonsuited in an action for debt. Judgment went against 
Eccles, who moved for a new trial. Motion overruled. Eccles appealed. 
The Court of Appeals awarded a new trial on the ground that the court 
below instructed the jury that the measure of damages should be to the 
amount of the debt claimed ; that amount had not been established, and 
therefrom reversed. 

The time for suing under the occupying claimant law being about 
to expire, a tremendous batch of ejectments were brought at this term, 
which gave the clerk much labor but did him no harm. 

The old petition and summons law was then in vogue — a summary 
way to recover debts. 

They were at first set for the third day of the term, but afterward 
changed to the first day for the convenience of clerks, as it enabled 
them previous to the sitting of the courts to draw up a lot of blank 
judgments. The custom of the courts was to inquire of damages in all 
cases that might come before them. The verdicts were in this form : 
"We of the jury find for the plaintiff the debt in the petition mentioned 
and one cent in damages." This plan allowed the clerk for a writ of 
injury, jury and judgments, and the sheriff for summoning a jury in 
each case. Perhaps fifty judgments would be rendered in one hour. 

This plan continued for years until its working was wisely consid- 
ered by the Legislature to be needlessly expensive to debtors, and it was 
enacted that in all undefended cases the jury should be dispensed with 
and judgment to go by default. This alteration would, under the pres- 
ent clerk's and sheriff's fees, lessen the costs in each case $2.05. 

64 



JUNE TERM, 1816 

Judge Cosby sat alone during this term and signed the final adjourn- 
ing order. It was the last of his presiding in this country. 

SEPTEMBER TERM, 1816 

Hon. Alfred Metcalfe produced his commission from Governor 
Shelby, appointing him Judge of the Fifth Judicial District, and took 
his seat. 

Judge Metcalfe was an earnest man; was a great favorite of Gov- 
ernor Duval on account of his social and gentlemanly qualities ; was a 
fair lawyer, and the best parlor singer I ever heard. In court he never 
addressed the officer by name, but it was Mister Clerk, Mister Sheriff 
and Mister Jailer. 

TERM 

It was at this term that I had made an arrangement with my prede- 
cessor, Major Ben Helm, to resign as clerk, and I was to run the risk 
of an appointment. Of course it behooved me to do my best for a fair 
and correct journal of the court's proceedings, as my future prosperity 
depended on Metcalfe's choice, and I sent my old friend, Worden Pope, 
Esq., to sound the Judge. He reported to me that he thought that the 
Judge would appoint me. I replied that that would hardly do. Mr. 
Pope then said he was fully convinced that the Judge would give the 
appointment. I still doubted. Mr. Pope then told me that the Judge 
said he w^ould appoint me. I concluded that would do. 

On reading the orders I found I had made more mistakes than I 
ever had before. But I had relied on the Judge's promise. 

Major Helm came into court and very gracefully resigned. I some- 
how managed to let the Judge know that I was a candidate to fill the 
vacancy. The Judge asked whom I offered as securities. I had forgotten 
that requirement, but half the bar volunteered. The bond was given 
and the Judge swore me. Now, if any one could imagine how a man 
would feel reprieved from the gallows, he might think how I felt. It 
was a life and death matter with me, just twenty-one years old, as poor 
as a church mouse, and a debt of $2,000 to meet, but the result was 
that by the help of a good friend I got out of debt, and so far have 
kept out of the poorhouse. 

January 20th, 181 7. James Guthrie, Esq., sworn as attorney-at-law. 

65 



Same day William Farleigh sworn as deputy clerk. He was an 
efficient and faithful deputy, and although afflicted with a white swelling 
a great part of the time and which slightly lamed him for life, he never 
flinched from his duty, and during court times repeatedly wrote the 
whole night in bringing up the orders of the court. When Meade 
county was established he received the appointment of clerk, which he 
held nearly all the balance of his life, thirty or forty years, and there 
was no better clerk in the State, and according to my opinion, there was 
no better man. 

Shortly after he went to Meade he became a member of the 
Methodist Church and remained a consistent member until the day of 
his death. His excellent wife was also a member of the same church. 
They were counted pillars and their house was always the preacher's 
home, with the latchstring always out. 

March lo, 1817 — Benjamin Chapeze, Esq., admitted to the bar. 

February 10, 1817 — Hon. Alfred Metcalfe, circuit judge, was sworn 
before the Hon. John Rowan, justice of the peace of Nelson county. 

March 12th, 1817 — Moses Saltsman, Phillip Saltsman and Lot 
Dickers put on trial for murder. Not completing the trial that day, the 
prisoners were remanded to jail and John Haywood, jailer, ordered to 
summon a guard, not exceeding twenty men. Next day Moses was 
found guilty of manslaughter and had accommodations assigned him in 
the penitentiary for two years. 

September ist, 181 7 — Judge G. A. Gaither appointed county attor- 
ney pro tem. 

Along about this time the members of the bar became a little pug- 
nacious and many of them were calmed down by adding to the public 
treasury at the rate of iio each. 

September 5th — William G. Wiggington, attorney-at-law ; Larkin 
Smith, the same. March 9th, 1818, Hon. A. H. Churchill, the same. 
September 14th, James I. Dozier, the same. September, 1818, was the 
last term at which Judge Metcalfe presided. 

MARCH TERM, 1819 

Hon. John P. Oldham came in as circuit judge, and presided until 
the end of September term, 1820. 

66 



JANUARY TERM, 1819 

Hon. Paul I. Booker took his seat as circuit judge. He was sworn in 
on General Jackson's day, 8th January, 1821. 

MARCH TERM 

Richard Rudd, Esq., produced commission as commonwealth's attor- 
ney. June term, 1821 — Daniel Poland and Daniel S. Bell sworn as 
attorneys-at-law. This brings me to the end of order book H. 

And with an apology to my readers for boring them so long with the 
court proceedings, I must take my leave of that branch of the history 
and go back to the woods again and give a detail of the original build- 
ings and settlers of the town, allude to some early scenes, and afterward 
I propose to give my recollections of the bar, to be occasionally inter- 
spersed with a few anecdotes. 

CHAPTER XV 

BACK TO THE WOODS AGAIN 

As it has been before stated, in the year 1780 the first settlements 
were made around the present site of Elizabethtown, then Jefferson 
county, Virginia, and the three forts of Col. Andrew Hynes, Hon. 
Thomas Helm and Hon. Samuel Haycraft were erected. They were 
rather stockades, afterward called stations. The manner of erecting 
these forts was to dig a trench with spades or hoes or such implements 
as they could command, then set in split timbers, reaching ten or twelve 
feet above the ground and having fixed around the proposed ground 
sufficiently large to contain some five, six or eight dwellings with a 
block house, as a kind of citadel with port holes. That was considered a 
sufficient defense against Indians armed with rifies or bows and arrows, 
but with a siege gun of the present day a well directed shot would level 
a hundred yards of these pristine fortifications. The mode of attack by 
the Indians when in sufficient force was to try to storm the fort, or by 
lighted torches thrown upon the roofs of the buildings within to burn 
out the besieged, but they rarely succeeded in setting fire. If in small 
force the Indians would shield themselves behind trees and watch a 
whole day for some unwary pale- face to show himself above the forti- 
fication and pick him off. But this was a two-handed game, for it some- 

67 



times happened that the red skin in peeping from his tree got his brains 
blown out. It was very rare that the siege was continued after an 
Indian was killed, for those Indians were remarkable for carrying oft' 
the dead and wounded, even on field of battle. It was a war custom of 
the Indians never to take an open field fight, but always treed or lay 
low in the small cane or high grass, and this mode of fighting was more 
universally adopted by the old and experienced braves than by the 
young and untaught warriors. If by deploying the whites could get 
a raking fire upon the red man, they retreated hastily to more distant 
trees and renewed the fight, and if by force of circumstances they 
were compelled to come to a hand-to-hand fight they fought with the 
desperation of demons, using the scalping knife, war axe and war club. 
The latter was formed of a hickory stick about three feet long and there 
was fastened to the end a stone curiously wrought from one to three 
pounds weight, one end of the stone representing the blade of an axe, 
the other end representing a sledge hammer. A collar was cut in the 
stone near the end or poll, in which groove the stick was fastened around 
either by twisting the stick, or with thongs of leather fastening it firmly 
in the end of the stick, split open so as to receive it. Many of these stone 
axes are found now in Kentucky. They are always made of brown 
stone as hard as granite, and when wielded by a strong arm are a 
formidable weapon. They also used another weapon made of flint, 
small in size, in the shape of a dart. These were for arrow heads. I 
have picked up hundreds of them, and nearly every Kentuckian forty 
years old is familiar with them. The supposition is that this latter 
weapon was used for killing birds or small game. 

In olden times our white boys fastened them to arrows, but not 
being skilled in archery they were found to be of very little service to 
them and served only for boyish amusement. 

The colony which came to Kentucky with my father, Samuel Hay- 
craft, Sr., consisted of his wife, my mother, Jacob Vanmeter and wife, 
v/'Jacob Vanmeter, Jr., Isaac and John Vanmeter /Rebecca Vanmeter, 

V/ " ' -. r 

Susan Gerrard and her husband, John Gerrard. Rachel Vanmeter, Ais- 
ley Vanmeter, Elizabeth Vanmeter and Mary Hinton. All of them, 
with my mother, were sons, son-in-laws and daughters of Jacob Van- 
meter, Sr. Hinton was drowned on the way in the Ohio river. There 

68 



was also a family of slaves belonging to the elder Vanmeter. These all 
settled for a time in the Valley. 

The most of them opened farms in the neighborhood. The men and 
women married and propagated at a round rate, averaging about a 
dozen children, and they have so multiplied that their name is legion 
and are now scattered over nearly every State and Territory in the 
Union, and can be found in all grades of society and profession, and of 
all kinds of names and every shade of color except black — they have not 
gone into that as yet. There is no vouching for what will be in the next 
hundred years if the present progressive system of equalization in- 
augurated by Sumner is carried out. But before that happens I hope 
to be hors de combat, which means defunct. 

Other colonists shortly after, perhaps the same year, settled in the 
Valley. Judge Thomas Helm, with quite a family of children and 
blacks, came to the same garden of Eden, to-wit, Severn's Valley, and 
his family, moved by the same impulse, have multiplied and replenished 
the earth in a very commendable manner. They, too, have scattered 
far and wide and filled positions of honor and profit equal to any in the 
State. Then came the Millers, the Thomases, the Browns, Shaws, 
Fremans, Swanks and hosts of others, who all have done their parts 
honestly in peopling the earth. They, too, have taken the wings of the 
morning and (figitratively speaking) flown to the uttermost parts of the 
earth. These all braved the savages of the forest for years, lived on 
wild meat, and clad themselves in buckskin and buffalo wool. 

These all struggled onward and upward, without any legal organiza- 
tion, but were a law to themselves, and fair dealing and justice was 
meted out with as liberal a hand as at the present day, notwithstand- 
ing the present standing army of governors, judges, lawyers, justices of 
the peace, clerks, sheriffs, constables, coroners, assessors and tax gath- 
erers. Then no fellow came sneaking in and asked how many acres 
of land you owned, or how many horses and cows you claimed, or how 
many dollars you had in the sugar trough under the bed. Nobody was 
sued for debt, for there was no need of debt, and nobody owed any- 
thing but good will ; nobody worse false teeth or wigs ; nature's food 
stuck the hair tight, and teeth were not rotted out by using pound cake, 
syllabubs, sally-lunn, macaroni, chicken salad, stewed oysters or such 
like conglomerations. A hunter could be on the ground, covered with' 

69 



a buffalo skin and six inches of snow on that, having drunk a half pint 
of bear's oil, and wake up in the morning cured of the worst cold known 
in those primeval days. 

I have before stated on the first day of June, 1792, Kentucky was 
made a State of the Union. In 1793 Hardin county was formed. Up 
to this time the settlers in the Valley had no county seat or place desig- 
nated for erecting public buildings. 

In 1793 Col. Andrew Hynes laid off thirty acres of land adjoining 
the land of Samuel Haycraft in Severn's Valley, on which to erect the 
buildings of the county. This place was afterward named Elziabeth- 
town in honor of the lady of Colonel Hynes, whose name was Elizabeth. 
The difficulties arising upon the question of its being the county seat has 
been fully recited in the preceding part of this history. 

The town was not regularly established until 1797. This thirty acres 
of land was a rich spot on the side of Valley creek. It was laid off in a 
singular shape, an oblong square with an obtuse angle at each end, per- 
haps done so on account of the shape of the Colonel's land, being at one 
corner of his tract and very heavily timbered with tremendous poplars, 
wild cherry, walnut, ash, sugar tree, hackberry, hickory, beech, gum, 
etc., the undergrowth spicewood, dogwood and leatherwood. 

After it was laid off into streets and alleys the trustees made sev- 
eral sales of lots at auction. The lots were half acres except at the 
corners of the public square. These lots were quarter acres. The whole 
number of lots was fifty-one. The best lots sold for about £3 los and 
others went lower. Bidders were slow, as the heavy forests to be cut 
down and the lots to clear involved in expense three times as great as 
the value of the lots. But there were found some stout, hearty and 
strong-armed men patriotic enough to undertake the Herculean task. 
The first operation was to clear off a spot some thirty feet square in 
which to erect a round log cabin — puncheon floor and clapboard roof, 
confined to the house by weight pole, with an eave-bearer, against which 
the boards rested. As to windows, it is rather doubtful how they were 
constructed, as there was no glass to be had, and making of a sash was 
not dreamed of. The chimney was built of wood, with fireplace nearly 
across the house, never less than seven feet wide in the clear. The first 
section of the chimney ran up a little higher than the mantlepiece, which 
was a stick of oak timber about one foot square and about six feet high. 

70 



It was walled inside up to that with stone and clay, then the chimney 
narrowed abruptly to about three feet square, and was constructed with 
what was then called cat-and-clay, and as some readers may not be 
posted as to cat-and-clay, I will undertake to enlighten them by a de- 
scription. First a stiff clay was made, intermixed with straw or grass 
cut into nibs, then some oak timber was split up into a kind of lath, 
similar to tobacco sticks ; the balance of the chimney was built up of 
first a layer of clay, then a round of sticks, then clay, and so on until the 
desired height was obtained, the clay all the time covering the sticks 
inside and out about three inches thick, the sticks showing the ends 
about four inches ; then a lubber pole was set in across the chimney in- 
side, on which were hung pottrambles, on which to suspend pots and 
kettles for cooking, boiling soap, rendering lard and heating wash water. 
The old-fashioned long-handled frying pan was universally used in 
frying chickens, rabbits and squirrels, turkey breast and venison, etc. 

The good dames became very expert in the use of the frying pan. I 
have often seen them at it when frying pancakes. When one side was 
sufificiently done the pan was withdrawn from the fire, two or three 
quick motions were made to loosen the pancake, and then by a sudden 
twitch up, which nobody except a woman could do, the cake was lifted 
in the air so as to turn a summersault and was caught in the pan with 
the done side up and then finished. 

The writer has frequently heard discussions among the gentle sex 
upon the pancake frying art, contending that no woman was a complete 
adept in the business until she could toss a pancake out at the top of 
the chimney and run out of the door and catch it in the pan. But under- 
stand me. reader, I cannot vouch that this feat was ever performed. It 
was considered the ne plus ultra of panning. 

The length of this number will compel me to defer the inner arrange- 
ments of the cabin as to sleeping, loaf baking, turkey roasting, etc., to 
the next chapter. 

CHAPTER XVI 

In my last chapter I was building cabins for town houses and went 
slightly into cooking, and as lightly as some may think of it, that old- 
fashioned cooking was as far superior to the new-fangled Frenchified 

71 



mode of macaroni fricassees and gumbo as day is to night, and it 
would be worth a ride of ten miles on a snowy day to any man of 
proper taste to partake of a dinner of olden times, but it has been 
crowded out and can only be found on the outskirts of civilization among 
the hills. It may possibly have an existence in some of the mountain 
counties of Kentucky. If so a month spent in that region would restore 
a man to health and appetite more than double the time at Crab Orchard 
or Grayson Springs. 

SLEEPING 

Men, women and children are so constituted as to require sleep, and 
a comfortable arrangement ought to be made for it. Well, the house is 
up and covered and the chimney built, then in one corner of the house 
four forks are let into the ground, shaved poles are placed on either 
side in the forks and cross-laid with clapboards, then whatever fixing 
may be on hand, as a bed will be laid on those boards, and laying pride 
and ambition aside, it is better than the present spring mattresses — that 
is for the head of the family. Another fixing in another corner is put 
up for the children. 

Next a loft (called in those times upper story) is prepared, and there 
the boys are put to sleep. 

BAKING AND ROASTING 

Every family that had pretentions to housekeeping had a bakeoven 
out of doors, and how was the backoven made, some uninitiated reader 
will ask. Be patient and hear : First a foundation was made two feet 
high by setting posts in the ground at each corner ; a capping was placed 
on that, representing sills ; on this a floor was laid of split timbers ; on 
this dirt was laid, on that a stiff coat of clay about five inches thick ; 
this was sleeked over by hand or paddle if they had no trowel. Then 
the oven must go up ; a stifif, well-mixed clay was made, intermixed 
with nibbled straw or grass ; then the oven was built of this clay in 
the shape of a goose egg cut into two parts lengthwise ; a square hole 
for a door was left in front, and a small round hole at the back was 
made to let out smoke or extra heat. To prevent accidents the builders 
sometimes laid up carefully dried bark of the required shape for the 
inside and the oven was built to fit on it. It was then left to dry a day 
or two. The bark wa^ fired and burn out, which completed the oven 

72 



and at the same time fitted it for baking. During that operation the 
oven, first being cleaned of ashes, the door was stopped by a piece of 
plank and the back hole was stopped up to keep in the heat. 

I remember being at an old-fashioned wedding when quite a boy. 
(Boys went to weddings without being specially invited.) It was at 
the house of a well-to-do farmer and it was perfectly astonishing to see 
the quantity of roast turkey, chicken and pig, with huge loaves of 
bread, puddings, custard and pies, that were drawn out as necessity re- 
quired. Nothing could equal it, except the rapidity with which it was 
consumed by the hundred and fifty guests that stood in the house and 
out in the yard. Perhaps some long-faced cynic may think this history 
is running into the ground by detailing such minute and trivial matters. 
I will just say to such that this history is intended to lead the present 
generation back to first principles and to show ofif things as they really 
were in honest home-spun garb. Most historians take up notions full 
grown and in full blast and leave you to conjecture how they were 
conceived and brought forth and grew into manhood. Moreover, it was 
intended to incorporate in this history such inside matter as never. was 
before and in all probability never will again be found in history. 

It is absolutely ridiculous for a man not to look beyond his nose. 
In that view of the case this history is intended for use in future years 
and perhaps ages. It is intended for the future occupants of Elizabeth- 
town. For who can tell what Elizabethtown will be with her delightful 
and healthy location, with her enterprising and energetic population, her 
railroad facilities, her fine water, and her surrounding of intelligent and 
gentlemanly farmers, the best fruit country in the world, and her future 
manufactories that must spring up, and when it becomes a large city 
it will be well to look back upon her starting point. 

Excuse this digression. The foregoing description of one house and 
fixtures and our doings in Elizabethtown will do for all up to the year 
1801. The first tanner was Jacob Bruner. The first shoemaker was 
Joe Donahoe. He kept no shop, but took his kit to the house where a 
pair of shoes was wanted, or if a whole family were to be shod Joe 
would do it if kept sober. He sometimes by way of variety was fastened 
in the stocks, but if a man could keep him sober and bear with tobacco 
juice he squirted over the floor, he would stick to his last for two weeks 
at a time in a fruitful family. 

73 



The first tailor was a Scotchman named Archibald McDonald. He 
had no shop or shop board, but tailored around wherever needed. He 
sat and sewed in a chair like a white man, and by this means was pre- 
vented from cabbaging cloth if he had been disposed to do so. 

He was also a dancing master, of good physique, wore knee breeches 
and could outstrut any man in the State. He stood much on his dignity 
and used high-swelled words. Once in a debating society he was talking 
of the conglomerations of the superstructure and anatomy of the 
physical monstrosity called man, and being at a loss for a suitable word, 
uttered profane language. The president called him to order, and he 
made the laconic reply "Inevitably" and sat down. 

The first mill was built by Samuel Haycraft. It was afterward 
owned by George Berry and was changed to a sawmill, being frequently 
put out of order by mischievous youths — like the lamp-breakers of this 
day. 

After this time similar buildings were erected by George Berry, 
Jacob Bruner, Samuel Patton, Mrs. Jane Ewin, Mrs. Boling, Mrs. 
Llewellyn, Thomas Lincoln (father of the President), James Crutcher, 
Asa Coombs, Thomas Davis, Henry Ewin, James Love and David 
Vance. 

Hewed log houses gradually took the place of the round log houses, 
with shingled roofs fastened with poplar pegs, plank floors and windows 
with sash and glass or greased paper instead of glass. 

The first tavern of hewed logs was built on Main Cross street by 
James Crutcher and afterward sold to Asa Coombs, who was also 
justice of this peace. 

When Major Crutcher sold that tavern stand he built another tavern 
house on Main street at the corner of the public square and hoisted a 
sign of a lion rampant on each side of the board. I remember well I 
was very shy of that sign and always passed on the opposite side of the 
street, for stand where you would that savage beast seemed to be star- 
ing at you. And from that day (about 1798) to this time ( 1869) Eliza- 
bethtown, to her credit be it spoken, never was without a first-rate eating 
house and sometimes three or four of them, and that fact has ever made 
the town a pleasant stopping place. 

The first schoolteacher in town that I have a vivid recollection of 
was a lame gentleman named John Pirtle. He was the father of Judge 

74 



Pirtle, now of Louisville. He occupied the Patton house, where Dr. 
Harvey Slaughter now resides. This house is on the opposite side of 
the street from the sign of the lion, one square above. This formed 
another obstacle to my boyish perambulations, as I thought then it was 
the habit of a school master to slash every boy he could get hold of. So 
this urchin in passing through this strait of Scylla and Charybdis put on 
full sail and tacked with considerable dodging, making several acute 
angles, and always experienced a sense of relief when safely through. 
Of Mr. Pirtle, the teacher, I intend in my future number to give a 
more extended notice. 

CHAPTER XVII 

From the year 1780 to the year 1800 chimneys were built of wood or 
stone, for the art of brickmaking had not reached the wooded country. 
Some of those who emigrated from Virginia might have seen a brick, 
and if such a material had before that time been seen in this brickless 
country there is no man living who can testify to the fact. Therefore, I 
assert without the fear of successful contradiction that no brick was 
here. 

The first stone masonry deserving the name was executed by John 
Ball on a stone chimney for my father's house. It was a three-story 
concern, built in the years 1798 and 1799, and took more than one hun- 
dred wagonloads to accomplish it. It was fourteen feet wide at the 
base and was nearly forty feet high. The town by this time was con- 
sidered to be looking up and had nearly one hundred and fifty inhabitants 
all told, counting whites and blacks, men, women and children. The 
public square was nearly cleared off and most of the timber used up, 
and be it remembered that every half acre had a sufficiency of timber on 
it to build a house, kitchen, stable and henhouse, and fence the ground, 
and to furnish firewood for an indefinite time, exclusive of the un- 
wedgeable forked logs rolled together and burned in log heaps. 

THE FIRST BRICK HOUSE 

About the year 1801 the town was taken completely by surprise by 
the fact that a brickyard was opened and a brick house was to be built 
by Major Benjamin Helm, the first citizen that had the means and enter- 

75 



prise to undertake such an improvement. It was a bold start for the 
beginning. It was fifty feet long and twenty-five feet wide, a deep 
cellar under the whole building and walled up with huge stone. Two 
high stories of brick were reared upon this stone wall. The first story 
was eighteen inches thick and the second story thirteen inches. Charles 
Sawyer, an Englishman, was the bricklayer, and Robert Huston was 
the carpenter. One of the lower rooms was wainscoted with panel work 
of seasoned black walnut presses ; two more of those presses were also 
in the second story. The fire or mantelpieces were massive and curiously 
wrought of the same kind of w^alnut lumber. The floors were laid on 
massive sleepers of blue ash timber. The plastering was done by a Lex- 
ington plasterer. The plastering was more than one-inch thick, and 
the white or putty coat was put on so compactly and well troweled that 
a man could almost see his face in it. This fine, glossy finish required 
the expenditure of considerable elbow grease, and up to this time (a 
period of sixty-six years) there has been no such plastering done in this 
town since, and the blue ash floors are nearly as perfect as when 
first laid. I am thus particular in the description of this house, as it 
was in keeping with the character of the builder, who held the maxim 
through a long life that "what was worth doing was worth doing well," 
and to show what difficulties had to be overcome in completing such an 
undertaking at that early day. There was no lumber yard in the State. 
The plank was sawed at our water mills or with the whipsaw, and then 
seasoned by firing in plank kilns. There were no nails to be had short 
of Lexington. 

The Major mounted his horse and rode to Lexington, ninety miles, 
and rode home on a pair of saddle-bags with thirty pounds of wrought 
shingle nails — cut nails were not then invented — paying yjYi cents per 
pound for them. The house was finished in 1803, and as an enduring 
proof of the fact a circle was made in the street gable about the size of 
the forewheel of a wagon, made lower than the common surface, finished 
in white, with these letters : 

"Ben Helm. 
1802." 

The house still stands, having undergone some twenty alterations 
and additions, and has been owned and resided in by the writer of this 
motley history from the year 1822 — forty-seven years. 

76 



The next brick house built was the Court House, in 1805, the brick 
for which were made and burned on the pubhc square. Of this I have 
spoken in a previous number. 

Next in course of time was a handsome residence built by Major 
James Crutcher in the west angle of the public square, two stories high, 
well finished w^ith a set of marble steps in front, being superior in 
material and finish to anything of the kind in the following sixty years. 
This house was the hospitable mansion of the Major until about 1818 
or 1819, when the Major removed to his palatial residence on the hill, 
now occupied by I. Robin Jacobs. 

The house on the public square was afterward owned by Mr. Hugh 
Mulholland. an enterprising merchant and clever gentleman, son-in-law 
of the Major. He added a three-story brick building, filling out to the 
street. It was sold to George ]\I. Miles, Esq., a most excellent man, who 
finished the building and lived in it for many years until after the 
commencement of the late war. During that time Gen. John H. Mor- 
gan, of the Confederate Army, attacked the town in December, 1862, 
with several thousand cavalrymen and about seven pieces of artillery, 
firing one hundred and seven shots of grape and shell into the town. 
A ball half buried in the wall still holds its place. Soon after a regi- 
ment of Federal troops was stationed in town. One company quar- 
tered theinselves in an upper room of the house and took possession of 
the Baptist, Methodist and Presbyterian churches. Mr. Miles being 
a southern rights man, the soldiers became exceedingly annoying to him, 
and considering his property and even his life in danger and held by a 
doubtful tenure, he sold at a great sacrifice to Mr. Andrew Depp, an 
enterprising German, who has since beautified and much improved it 
so that it is now the most valuable property in the town. 

The next brick building in order was put up by Richard May at the 
corner of Main Cross and Mulberry streets. This was a most substan- 
tial building, but was never finished. Later (in May) he sold it to 
James Carlisle, who afterward sold it to Benjamin Tobin, Esq., a 
lawyer, who completed it in good and tasty style, residing in it until his 
death, which happened in the year 1836. Having no children, he willed 
it to his wife, Mrs. Martha A. Tobin, who afterward married Sanford 
J. Poston, Esq. She was a lady of extraordinary attainments and merit, 
and they continued to reside in the house until the 7th day of August, 

77 



1869, when it burned down in the great conflagration which visited our 
town on that day. Mr. Poston had been an active business man and for 
many years was a merchant, owned a steam mill, filled the office 
of sheriff and deputy for nearly twelve years. He tried his luck in 
California and Texas, and has experienced as many of the vicissitudes 
of this life in good and bad luck as almost any man living, being fre- 
quently cast down but not destroyed. He is a man that says but little 
and thinks much. H he has sorrows he keeps them to himself; if he 
is prosperous he makes no flourish about it. He maintains his integrity, 
is an accommodating, polite gentleman, and according to the rustic 
phraseology of the day, "keeps a-kicking." He has rebuilt a portion 
of his residence and is preparing to rebuild the whole. Although he has 
lived in this town thirty-seven years, few men outside of his confidential 
friends know him, as it is to them alone he is communicative and with 
them he is social, while he is civil to all. 

The next of note is the Wintersmith House, since called the Summit 
House. It was intended as the family residence of the late Horatio G. 
Wintersmith, of whom I intend hereafter to speak, as one of our most 
valuable and enterprising citizens. The house was on a large scale, 
with a large brick stable, and was converted into a hotel. After Mr. 
Wintersmith's death it was sold to Joseph Miller for $12,000. After 
some years it was repurchased by the heirs, and was finally burned 
down in the fire of the 7th of August, 1869. 

At the same time the three-story brick building at the northwest 
corner of the public square was built by Hon. John B. Helm, now of 
Hannibal, Missouri, and was styled the center of attraction. Judge 
Helm was then and for years before a successful and active merchant 
and attorney-at-law. This house was substantially built of the very 
best material and served as a residence, combined with an ample store- 
room. It was sold for $6,000 to Brown, Young & Forline. When Gen. 
John H. Morgan attacked the town in December, 1862, some soldiers 
were placed in the third-story. A stray ball passed through a window, 
killed two soldiers and passed through the opposite wall, making a hole 
nearly as large as a barrel. The house was then owned and occupied 
by Dr. Samuel Anderson, Sr., an industrious and successful practitioner. 
He shortly afterward sold it to Mr. Joseph Foerg, a German, who now 

78 



resides in it with his family, and he is doing a thriving business as a 
baker and confectioner, and is a quiet and peaceable citizen. 

CHAPTER XVIII 

OUT OF THE WOODS 

About the year 1816 the old houses began gradually to disappear, 
frame and brick houses gradually and slowly coming in. Tavern houses 
of wooden structure were on a better scale. Some few years previous 
to this one was opened on Main Cross street by James Perciful and one 
opposite by Samuel Stevenson. They had their day. The Perciful 
House was on the site lately occupied by Bud Hawkins and was previ- 
ously converted into a brick building and successfully kept by Lloyd 
Harris, Fielding Friend and Daniel M. Jones, all good landlords, then 
by Roderick Warfield, a Marylander, a very social, pleasant gentleman, 
with a fine, intelligent family, such as do credit to any town or city. 
He afterward sold it to William C. Hawkins, familiarly known as Bud 
Hawkins. He, with his excellent wife and daughters, conducted a 
popular hotel and made money for several years. On the 7th day of 
August, 1869, he was burned out — stock, lock and barrel. Bud always 
was a thrifty man and made money by honest means in a way that no 
other man would have thought of. He could snare rabbits, kill more 
turkeys and deer than all his neighbors put together. This w^as before 
he moved to town, and he always made his amusements in that way tell 
to profit. 

One instance will suffice : Mr. B. Frank Slaughter, understanding 
that Bud's head was level on the rabbit trade, requested him to bring 
him all he could capture at 10 cents each. The next day, or perhaps 
the second day. Bud came in loaded down to the guards, and meeting 
Mr. Slaughter, told him he had brought him some rabbits. *'Very 
well," says Frank, "take them down to my wnfe and tell her to pay you 
ID cents each." When Bud turned ofif Slaughter asked, "How many 
have you?" Bud replied, "Only forty!" "Oh, thunder!" says Frank. 
"Go around town and sell the most of them." After an hour Bud told 
him that he parted with all but twenty. "Here," says Frank, "is two 
dollars, but don't bring me another devlish rabbit." 

79 



After he opened his hotel, although he was considered a close dealer, 
he was by no means penurious and never turned a man off because he 
had no money. He had a good run of custom and highly amused his 
guests by his wit and comical stories. I have known him to go out and 
invite half a dozen citizens to dinner, saying, "Come in and take a 
rough check." 

On one occasion a poor man without money, and by no means well, 
came and stood despondently before his door. Without saying a word 
Bud saw him and called out, "Come in, sir." The man replied that he 
had no money. "Ah, well," says Bud, "you are the very man I have 
been looking for. Come in." He got his supper, lodging and breakfast, 
and after breakfast he took him to the railroad depot and paid 'his fare 
to the next station, where the stranger said he had friends, and on 
taking leave said, "I will show how I am able to do this," ran his hand 
into the pocket of his trousers and hauled out a handful of gold and 
remarked, "If you come across another man in your fix, send him 
to me." 

Hawkins had repaired his back building for his family to winter in, 
for everything on his lot went with the devoinnng flames, even his 
chicken coop, cooking his chickens, feathers and all. 

The old tavern stand of Major Crutcher at the sign of the lion was 
afterward occupied and owned by Daniel Waide, who built a brick 
addition to the wooden house. He kept an excellent house. His wife 
was the daughter of Alexander McDougal, a Scotchman and a Baptist 
preacher of some note, and some people have remarked that all of the 
preacher's daughters were born scientific cooks. One thing is certain — 
that no family could excel them in that line. But Waide and his wife 
both died, and their death was a severe stroke upon our town. 

Waide had some of the most accomplished servants in the land. In 
his will he provided that his servant. Jerry Waide, should be set free 
on his paying $i,ooo to his executor, William S. Young, and in order to 
enable him to raise the money he was allowed to hire himself at $150 
a year. lerry went to Louisville as a barber, and in less than one year 
he paid the hire and the $1,000 and soon bought his wife and children 
and his mother-in-law, and had $500 stock in the Gait House. He was 
a most courtly and accomplished gentleman in his manners, and before 
his death accumulated an estate of $30,000. 

80 



Since Waide's death the house passed through several hands — 
Samuel Martin, Esq., and then Denton Geoghegan, and afterward 
Hugh Mulholland, who removed the wooden structure and put in its 
place a three-story brick. The hotel was then kept by Mr. Mulholland 
in fine style. After this Judge LaRue came in. He also married a 
McDougal, and if any lady could excel their breakfasts, dinners and 
suppers I have not found them out. Judge LaRue afterward became 
the owner. After some years he sold it to Thomas B. Munford, who 
kept up the establishment with equal credit. It finally fell into the 
ownership of Jeseph Tarpley, Esq., and after several changes James E. 
Talbot became the lessee and now keeps an excellent house, called the 
Eagle House. 

SHOWERS HOUSE 

On the old Chalfin stand, at the south corner of the public square 
and Main street, the old log house has been changed into a large and 
convenient hotel and is kept by William Showers, more familiarly 
known as "Big" Showers. He has made extensive improvements in 
stables, etc., keeps a livery stable, has a strong run of custom, provides 
good accommodations and a bountiful table. He is aided by an excellent 
wife as landlady, and well she plays her part. 

About the year 1818, John Y. Hill, a tailor, emigrated from Vir- 
ginia and followed his trade for a few years, but finding stitching too 
slow a business for a man of his active business habits, he commenced 
trading in horses. Having built a residence at the corner of Alain 
and Poplar streets and finding the horse trading did not profit, he then 
commenced burning brick and building houses. He built the Baptist 
Church, the Hardin County Academy, the house of Mrs. Elizabeth 
McKinney and the dwelling now occupied by Hon. Judge C. W. Winter- 
smith. When he quit building it was estimated that he had built about 
one-fourth of Elizabethtown. He was a popular man and was elected 
to the Legislature. He was a man of untiring energy, none more so 
unless we except his wife, to whom he was married shortly after he 
built his residence. She was Miss Rebecca D. Stone, now universally 
called Aunt Beck, but with all their energy and untiring industry he 
became hard pressed. But such a man and woman could not be kept 
down long. It was admitted on all hands that he was an honest man 
and all of his old friends were willing to credit him. 



When Judge LaRue sold out his hotel, Mr. Hill concluded to make 
some additions to his house and convert it into a hotel. No sooner said 
than done, the hotel was opened under favorable auspices. Everything 
was as neat as a pin, and when a traveler came he was politely met at 
the door by the landlord in his peculiar, complacent manner, armed and 
led into a sitting room, and the stranger felt as if he was in a gentleman's 
parlor. The place had no tavern smell about it, and if ever two little 
folks were found together who each played their part like clockwork, it 
was found in John Y. Hill and his wife. They had a fine run of cus- 
tom, and Aunt Beck's art of cofifee making was spread far and wide. 
But Mr. Hill labored in the vocation too hard. If he had commenced 
ten years sooner he would have accumulated a comfortable fortune. 
His valuable life came to a close by over-exertion. He died on the 
1st day of August, 1855, and the town felt that a greater calamity could 
not have happened them. After his death and up to this day Aunt Beck 
has kept up the house and has proved herself to be a woman of extraor- 
dinary administrative ability. She frequently threatened to close her 
house and quit the business, but she has found that the only thing she 
does not know how to do and she cannot quit. 

Now, if Elizabethtown is not a pleasant place to visit it is not because 
she has not three first-class hotels. Although in imminent danger from 
the late fire, fortunately for the town and the community, she escaped 
that devouring element. 

But poor Bud Hawkins' hotel went down, and it is thought that he 
will rise like a Phoenix and flourish again, to the gratification of his 
many friends. 

CHAPTER XIX 

I have in previous numbers spoken of the Baptist Church as having 
been constituted in the wild wilderness on the 17th of June, 1781, more 
than eighty-eight years past. The Baptists were the first in order of 
time in this Valley. Their membership was scattered and covered a 
great deal of ground. For the accommodation of the church the monthly 
meetings were held alternately at the Valley and Nolin. These meet- 
ings were held in open air or at a private house for many years. Old 
Nolin Church was constituted in 1803 by a mutual agreement. Up to 

82 



that time neither church had a regular place to worship. The town 
church, called Severn's Valley Church, about 1799 or 1800 built a 
huge log concern on the hill northeast of the Court House. It was 
of hewed poplar logs. This house was covered but never finished. A 
rough floor was laid loose and a few break-back benches were set up. 
The house was used in summer time for public worship, free for all, 
and occasionally for a school house. About 1805 the house was sold 
to John Davidson, who removed it to the lot where the clerk's office now 
stands and put up for a stable. The ground on which the house was 
first built was sold to Major James Crutcher, on which he erected the 
fine residence now occupied by I. Robin Jacobs, Esq. About that time 
my father donated about one acre of ground on the southeast of the 
town for a Baptist meeting house and a common burying ground, free 
for all societies. 

The Baptist built a frame house on it, which never was finished. 
About the year 181 5 they tore down the frame and erected a large 
hewed log house with two galleries. This house was finished and held 
a large congregation. This house was not comfortable in winter and it 
was customary with the church in the month of October to fix the place 
of meeting monthly for six months, designating some private residence 
for each month. 

This being the only house of worship, it was occasionally used by 
other denominations making their appointments at the old log meeting 
house. About the year 1832 the Methodists, who were now becoming 
strong, erected the first brick house of w^orship in the towm, in which 
all the denominations were contributors in some measure. But the 
largest contributor was Major Ben Helm, who built the house and 
expended some seven or eight hundred dollars upon it. At that date 
there was but few better houses in the State. 

The Methodists kindly tendered the use of this house to Baptists 
and Presbyterians and was used accordingly. 

Previous to this time the Court House was opened for religious wor- 
ship and was frequently used by all denominations. So was the old 
vSeminary and many private houses, and particularly the house of Major 
Ben Helm, under whose hospitable roof the traveling or visiting preach- 
ers always found a hearty welcome, and the same hospitalities are used 
to this day by his son, Henry B. Helm, Esq., who inherits and inhabits 

83 



the last family residence of his venerable father. Various other places 
and family residences were open for the same purpose. 

The Methodist meeting house some years since was struck by 
lightning, and in repairing it a considerable addition was made. 

About the year 1833 the Baptists and Presbyterians, each consider- 
ing themselves too weak to build a good house, concluded to build a 
partnership house, the time to be equally divided. A subscription for 
that piurpose was proposed but did not meet with much favor, and after 
some weeks' trial was abandoned, only $900 being subscribed. Each 
house then started separate subscriptions to build separate houses, and 
in one day's time each had a larger subscription than the united project. 
The Baptists were fortunate in getting their house built and finished by 
the late John Y. Hill for $1,200 and he completed it in the second year, 
this making the fourth house of worship erected by the Baptists. 
Material and labor then being cheap, the house was finished in good 
plain style, and such a house could not now be erected under $3,000. 

The Presbyterian house was put up and covered in the first year. 
The funds failing, Mr. Park, a zealous member of that church, finished 
it the next year at a cost of $500 or more over his subscription, relying 
on the membership to some day reimburse him. That house has since 
been much enlarged and improved in every particular, the membership 
and some friends making liberal subscriptions. 

After this the Episcopalians erected a small and neat house of 
worship. 

The Catholics also erected a good house in the west end of town. 

These five houses of worship are all standing and regularly supplied 
up to this time (1870). 

CHAPTER XX 

The town after 1818 was slowly and steadily built up, so that before 
the commencement of the war in 1861 from Mulberry street to the 
public square on both sides there was a solid block of buildings, all of 
brick. The public square was compactly built all around with brick 
houses, except two spaces filled by frame houses. After the war com- 
menced until it closed all improvements stopped and if a shingle was 
nailed on I never knew it. As soon as peace was made a new era 

84 



began. Nearly all the old roofs were torn off and replaced with new, 
many old houses were torn dow-n and remodeled, and in two years' 
time more improvements were made than had been done in twenty 
years before. In 1842 the town was extended to half a mile square. 
In the year 1867 the town was again incorporated and its boundary 
extended to three- fourths of a mile each way from the center of the 
public square. 

This act was repealed and re-enacted with amendments on the 26th 
day of February, 1868. Previous to this time the spread of the town 
was retarded by the owners of land adjacent to the old three-acre plot, 
since which time the land holders east, west and south of the old town 
boundary have laid out their lands in lots, streets, alleys and avenues, 
in whidi additions many lots have been sold at reasonable prices and 
buildings on these new lots have been rapidly erected. 

Splendid residences have been put up by George L. Miles, Rev. 
Air. Hagan and Dr. E. Warfield, besides many comfortable and neat 
residences by other individuals on the west side, and splendid first-class 
residences on the east side by Col. H. H. Cofer, Capt. W. F. Bell and 
T. H. Gunter, also about ten other very neat and respectable residences. 
On the south side, including the old Gallows hill, some twenty or thirty- 
buildings have been put up by the colored population. The African 
population have exhibited a good deal of energy in erecting their houses 
of no mean pretentions, and many of them show evidences of thrift. 

Two of our citizens, Fritz Raubold and Robert L. Wintersmitb, 
Esq., have showed a good deal of foresight and public spirit in erecting^ 
houses in the last named locality for the purpose of renting to such 
as were not able to build. Additions and handsome alterations and new 
buildings of elegant finish have been made on Mulberry and Main Cross 
streets, and up to the 7th of August, 1869, the improvements and addi- 
tions had at least doubled the previous improvements and extended over 
five times the area of the original town. 

William Wilson, Esq., attorney-at-law, made a purchase of thirty- 
four acres on the southeast side of the old town and put up a great 
number of fine outhouses and enclosed the whole in a handsome and 
elegant style. It is all in the town boundary as extended, an admirable 
location, and is now decidedly one of the most desirable places in the 
State of Kentucky for the residence of a private gentleman. 

is 



In the last year (1869) many alterations were made on both sides of 
Main Cross street from Mulberry street to the public square, making 
the most compact and beautiful part of the town. Those houses were 
occupied by dry goods merchants, shoe merchants, druggists, saddlers, 
coffee houses, confectioneries and family groceries, all put up and 
completed and the rubbish in the streets removed. That street was the 
pride of the town, giving evidence of enterprise and thrift. 

On the 7th day of August, 1869, at about i o'clock p. m., some 
drunken, trifling scamps crept into a haymow of a stable belonging to 
the Eagle House, which had been kept as a livery stable and situated 
between the alley and the Baptist Church, and it is supposed they used 
matches to light their stinking, crooked-necked pipes, and being too far 
gone in drunkenness to use discretion, communicated the fire to the 
hay, but drunk as the idle dogs were, they had sense enough to make 
their escape and the perpetrators are not known to this day. If they 
had been caught they might possibly have been accommodated with hot 
lodging. The weather was extremely dry and the flames communicated 
with great rapidity. Everything on that square on Poplar street, except 
the Baptist Church and the Seminary, was enveloped in a sheet of 
flames, and had not the wind favored these two buildings could not 
have escaped. The fire soon caught to the stable and back buildings 
on the south side of the alley and from thence to the newly finished fine 
buildings on the north side of Main Cross street, from which the flames 
mounted high, and the winds rising, caught across a sixty-foot street 
into the buildings on the south side of Main Cross street, and in less time 
than it takes to write this account of it, made an utter sweep of every- 
thing from Mulberry street to the public square and on one angle of the 
square. 

The fire raged with such madness and rapidity that a great deal of 
damage was done in the haste of removing goods and furniture, only 
a part could be saved, for the fire soon drove everybody out of Main 
Cross street, and a great quantity of goods and furniture were neces- 
sarily abandoned to the devouring elements — all back buildings south 
of Main Cross street were made a clean sweep of — all the buildings on 
three squares, and by almost su])erhuman effort on the part of the 
citizens, white and black, and even the ladies of the town, the fire was 

86 



stopped after raging about two hours, and in that short time the hard 
earning of twenty years lay in ruins. 

The loss was variously estimated from one hundred thousand to 
one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Several buildings at a distance 
caught fire, among them was the jail, the Methodist church. Presby- 
terian church and some private buildings, but they were extinguished 
without doing much injury. 

The great eclipse of the sun occurred just about the time the fire 
was subdued. The eclipse gave a sombre hue to all nature, well be- 
fitting the calamity which had destroyed one-half of the business houses 
of our town. 

CHAPTER XXI 

In my last chapter I attempted to give a general description of the 
great conflagration of the 7th of August, 1869. The town had no 
engine and no appliances for extinguishing fire except long ladders to 
ascend upon the roofs, but we have as good a set of fire fighters as 
any other town. The citizens worked to a great disadvantage, and 
perhaps the credit of stopping the fire is due in a great measure to 
Captain J. D. Cole, who at the critical moment took the lead, and by 
his cool deliberate management had the fire stopped at the southwest 
corner of the public square, where Wintersmith House connected with 
the south line of the public square ; had it passed that point nothing 
could have saved the balance of the town. 

The losses were about as follows : 

1. The large two-story brick of Isaac Radley. fronting on Main 
street and running back about one hundred feet on the alley, occupied 
partly in the lower story by Mr. John Ryno as a store room, and back 
of that as a tinner's shop. Xext on the alley was Mr. H. D. Kendall's 
Cofl:'ee House, called the Hole in the Wall. Back of that L. I. Warren's 
Cofifee House, connected with a ten-pin alley running tiic whole depth 
of the lots. Loss, $5,000; insurance, $1,600. 

2. The three story drug store and residence of J. \\ . Matthis. E>(\., 
with kitchen and stable back. Loss, $6.000 ; no insurance. 

3. The store house and residence of Jacob Kaufman, a dry goods 
merchant. Loss. $5,500 ; insurance, $3,000. 

87 



4- The shoe store and dwelling of C. Hotopp. This building had 
three tenants — one occupied by the owner, the next as a drug store by 
Dr. Warfield, the next by Joseph Lott as a beer and coffee house. Loss, 
$8,000; insurance, $1,500. 

5. Adam Beeler, as a provision store and sausage factory. Loss, 
$10,000 ; insurance, $3,000. 

6. John Rihn's shoe and variety store and family residence. Loss, 
$5,000; insurance, $1,200. 

7. The store house of Thomas H. Duncan, Esq., on the corner 
of Mulberry street, occupied by Duncan & Yeager as dry goods mer- 
chants. Loss, $4,000. 

Then crossing the street. 

8. The large two story residence of Sanford J. Poston, Esq., at the 
corner of Mulberry and Main Cross streets. Loss, $7,000; no insur- 
ance. 

9. The confectionery store of Henry Raubold & John Heller build- 
ing, owned by F. Raubold ; family residence above. Loss to the occu- 
pants, $4,000. 

10. The office attached to Poston's building, occupied by D. H. 
Gardner, silversmith. Loss, $1,200; no insurance. 

11. F. Raubold's residence and bakery, handsomely and newly re- 
modeled. Loss on the two last buildings, $8,000 ; insurance, $4,800. 

12. The store house owned by J. B. Slack. Loss, $2,500. 

13. The hotel of W. C. Hawkins. Loss, $12,000; no insurance. 

14. The dry goods store house and residence of Antoni Rihn. 
Loss, $5,500; insurance, $2,740. 

15. A. H. Cunningham, dr}- goods merchant. Loss, $3,000; no 
insurance. 

16. H. G. Wintersmith heirs' Summit House. Loss, $10,000; no 
insurance. 

17. H. M. Middleton, grocer. Loss in goods, $1,600. 

18. S. Kaufman & Co. Loss in goods, $3,000. 

19. R. L. Wintersmith & Son. Loss in groceries, $700. 

20. Duncan & Yeager. Loss in dry goods, $900. 

21. Mrs. A. F. Yeager. Loss in fancy goods, $500. 

22. John B. Shepherd. Loss of property, $2,000. 

23. D. H. Gardner, silversmith. Loss, $500. 

88 



24. Mary C. Warfield in drugs and medicines. Loss, $250. 

25. G. W Matthis, druggist. Loss, $2,000; insurance, $2,000. 

26. W. H. & L. L Warren, coffee house keepers. Loss, $800. 
The foregoing estimates made by the sufferers. 

Besides the losses enumerated — in removing goods and furniture 
from the buildings not in the burnt district, but threatened to be con- 
sumed — much loss was sustained by injury to furniture and beds and 
covering, and household articles, lost or stolen. Under this head, it is 
impossible to make an estimate as several valuable libraries were 
burned, including the valuable law library of the Hon. Charles G. 
Wintersmith, and the valuable historical library of C. Hotopp, includ- 
ing his German works of rare value, the loss of which he more deeply 
regretted than the loss of his fine houses. Also the library of Mrs. 
Martha Poston. 

BENEFACTORS 

It is due to other towns and cities and individuals to notice their 
liberality in aiding the sufferers by the fire. 

Captain Harry L Todd, keeper of the penitentiary, sent to Dr. 
B. R. Young one hundred chairs worth $200. 

The citizens of Frankfort, through Thomas Samuels, Esq., assistant 
secretary of state, contributed $118. 

Franklin, through S. Sympson, $12. 

Lebanon, through Hon. J. Proctor Knott, $107.50. 

The neighborhood of Red IMills, by Wm. Gannaway, in produce, 
sold for $37.10; cash $2.50. 

H. & A. McElroy, of Springfield, $50. 

The Louisville and Nashville Railroad Company transported free 
of charge all the lumber necessary to rebuild and iron fronts free of 
charge worth more than $2,000. 

Through the agency of the Hon. Samuel B. Thomas the last 
arrangement was made, and a liberal sum in money collected by him 
in Louisville in addition to his own large donation. 

Mr. Thomas also effected an arrangement with the following banks 
in Louisville: Louisville People's Bank, Bank of Kentucky, Bank of 
Louisville, Western Financial Corporation, Commercial Bank, Citi- 
zens' Bank, Merchants' Bank, Northern Bank, Falls City and Tobacco 
Bank. 

89 



JBy which arrangement these several banks agreed to loan the 
sufferers a sufficient sum to rebuild at six per cent, payable in such 
calls as they could meet. This liberality on the part of the Louisville 
and Nashville Railroad and the banks in the city of Louisville disproves 
the old adage that corporations have no souls. 

As soon as it was possible for the owners of houses burnt to 
approach their heated cellars, they commenced clearing off the debris, 
and in most instances enlarging their plans, and in an incredibly short 
space of time laid anew their foundations and reared up new and sub- 
stantial buildings, with iron fronts and tastefully finished a beautiful 
row on the north side of Main Cross street from the alley at Green row- 
to Mulberry street, with the exception of one on the corner of Mulberry 
and Main Cross streets all covered with tin. 

Among them I would mention the large house on Green row alley 
owned by Isaac Radley, Esq., with an elegant and spacious store room, 
finished and occupied in the month of December by our enterprising 
citizen, John A. Ryno, as a dry goods and variety store. In which store 
can always be found the pleasant and accomplished clerk, Jo McMurtry, 
a handsome young man, whose delight is to wait upon the ladies. Back 
of the store Mr. Ryno has an extensive stove and tin store ; this de- 
partment is presided over by our young friend, Otto Davis, almost as 
pleasant and likely as Jo, but not quite so blooming. 

Back on the same alley you may find H. D. Kendall's Coffee House 
and R. M. Mock's Gunsmith Shop. 

2. The drug store house of J. W. Matthis, Esq., with family resi- 
dence above, occupied 3rd of January, 1870, by G. V. Matthis and Dr. 
E. Warfield. 

3. The store house of Jacob Kaufman connected with residence 
occupied in December, 1869. 

4. C. Hotopp's Boot and Shoe Store and family residence above 
occupied in December, 1869. 

5. Adatn Beeler, one of the most complete provision stores and 
sausage factories to be found in the land, with a family residence 
above. 

6. John Rihn, boot and shoe and variety store, with residence above. 

7. On the south side of the street Mr. S. J. Poston has erected a 
three story building. 

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8. ¥. Raubokl has put up a store room and residence above. 

9. Antoni Rihn, in addition to his ground, has purchased the site 
on which Mr. Cunningham's stood, and has erected thereon a beautiful 
building with two store rooms and family residence above. 

10. Wm. C. Hawkins has put up a portion of his building and 
lives in it. 

The energy of all those citizens are in the highest commendable, 
and bids well for the prosperity of the town, having Phoenix-like arisen 
from their ashes and donned new and brilliant exteriors, indicative 
of their determination not to stay put down. They should all not only 
have the sympathies, but the patronage of a liberal and appreciative 
community. 

CHAPTER XXII 

RETRACING STEPS 

Having brought the history of building up to the present date (Jan- 
uary, 1870), I want to take my readers back and run them up and down 
on the line of mechanics and artisans who have opened and shut in 
the town since 1797. 

TANNERS 

The discovery of the art of tanning leather is doubtless of ancient 
date, whether it was discovered in the days of Adam I cannot say. for 
Adam went naked until he i:)artook of the forbidden fruit, then his 
eyes were opened to his nakedness and he adopted the primitive cover- 
ing of fig leaves, nor is there any account whether shoes were worn 
by Noah while he was building the ark. The Bible, which is admitted 
by all to be the most ancient and reliable history, in the third chapter 
of Exodus gives an account of Moses beholding a flame of fire in the 
midst of a bush, and the bush burned not. This exciting the curiosity 
of Moses, he turned aside to see the sight, and see if he could ascertain 
why the bush was not burnt. And as Moses approached the place 
the Lord spoke to him out of the midst of the bush and said. "Draw 
not nigh hither; put off thy shoes from th}' feet, for the place where 
thou standest is holy ground." 

Thus we have it certain that shoes were worn 3.441 years ago. 
but leaves it doubtful whether these shoes were of tanned leather. 

91 



The first account of a tanner by profession is in the forty-first year of 
the Christian era. His name was Simon, and lived by the sea shore at 
Joppa, and he must have been a prosperous man, for the Apostle Peter 
chose his house as a comfortable place at which to lodge and rest 
himself. But Simon must have learned his trade from some one else, 
and his boss must have also had a teacher, and so running back to 
remotest antiquity the origin is unknown. The fact is that tanners are 
in the world and no historian, dead or alive, has given the origin so we 
give it up. There are many other things in the world that cannot be 
accounted for ; for instance, how came cats here, and how have they 
stealthily crept up through all time and made choice of mice for a living. 
Or who first discovered that oysters were good for human diet ? or 
that tobacco was a decent thing to use in company of ladies particu- 
larly, smoking it in crooked necked pipes, and so on ad infinitum. 

Moreover there is a kind of posthumous advantage in being a tan- 
ner. In Shakspeare's tragedy of Hamlet, Hamlet inquired of a grave 
digger how long a man would last in the ground? The old grave 
digger leaning on his spade replied, "If he be not rotten when put in 
the ground he will last six or seven years, but a tanner will last you 
full nine years," and that is some encouragement. 

The first tanner that I at present remember as operating in our 
community was one Jacob Bruner, who imagined that the people had 
worn buckskin moccasins or went barefooted long enough, opened a 
tan-yard on the ground where the Metropolitan saloon now stands, and 
commenced operations. Tanners then had no money to buy hides, but 
tanned on the halves. When a raw hide was brought in the tanner by 
some mystical operation cut the initials of the owner on the hide about 
the neck, and entered on a book suited to that purpose the owner's name 
and the mystic mark intended for initials — and when the hide, if for 
sole leather, had lain in the lime and bate and tan bark ooze and such 
decoctions as a tanner only knows — the tail, due-claws and horns taken 
ofif and thrown on a shed and the hair in a barrel— in two years or a 
little less the owner came to draw his share, and then the important 
point of splitting the hide came off, the tanner always performs it and 
his knife zigzags in such a manner that the customer never knew which 
side to take. But the tanner, of course, a disinterested man, advised 
the customer which side to take — and the owner generally came oflf 

92 



second best, but always thought that he had got the tanner badly. This 
tan-yard went backwards and forwards between the Brunners and the 
Bruces and the Stouts for several years. 

About the year 1805 or 1806 William D. Stone, from Nelson 
county, bought out the concern and carried on the business success- 
fully up to the time of his death. Mr. Stone also followed bjitchering 
beef cattle. The habit then was to kill the beef, the same morning it 
was cut and sold to customers, by which means his tannery was partly 
supplied with hides. The profit to the butcher in those days was the 
hide and tallow. Stone was an industrious and provident man and a 
'respectable citizen, and when he died left an interesting and genteel 
family — three sons and a daughter. Hayden Stone, one of the sons, 
resides in Nelson county, and has been the county judge of that county. 
James E. Stone, another son, is now clerk of Hancock county, and has 
been for many years, and is a Baptist preacher. He was the father of 
the lamented Frank Stone, one of the promising young preachers of 
the state. He was lost by the burning of a steamboat on the Ohio river. 
His death was a melancholy occurrence. He could not swim, but 
seeing the only alternative was to burn alive or drown, he knelt down on 
the boat and devoutly in prayer, committed himself to God, then choos- 
ing the flood to fire, he plunged into the stream and for a time seemed 
to buffet the waves, but finally sank and was drowned. His death was 
a severe stroke to his pious father and mother, and to his young wife 
and a numerous host of sympathizing friends. 

Another son, Stephen W. D. Stone, Esq., who acted as deputy in 
my office for several years, and was afterwards clerk of La Rue county 
and circuit courts, he was and is now an excellent clerk and of high 
moral integrity. He afterwards removed back to Hardin county, and 
proved himself to be a fine practical farmer until the late war, when 
the force of circumstances made it necessary to sell his farm and re- 
move to this town, where he owns a very desirable property. 

The daughter married a gentleman named Jonathan McKay, a 
respectable gentleman of Nelson county. After the death of W'm. D. 
Stone the yard was purchased by James Park, an excellent worthy man 
of much promise. But he only lived a few years. After the death of 
James Park the yard fell into the hands of John Park, a poor, young 
man of untiring industry. He was cramped for means, but his industry 

93 



and honest dealings attracted the attention of Hon. John Helm, Sr., 
who asked Park if he could not get along better with some ready cash. 
Park replied that he could but that he was too poor to ask anybody to 
enter as his security. Mr. Helm then said, "I will lend you the money 
on your own note and your industry will be the security," and there- 
upon furnished hini several hundred dollars. This generous act greatly 
encouraged Mr. Park, and from that day pushed ahead and eventually 
established a new yard and in course of time accumulated a handsome 
estate. He was scrupulously honest and a conscientious man, and a 
devout member of the Presbyterian church, and Vv'as an elder and a 
pillar of the church, and when he died it was considered a calamity to 
the community. 

Some time after Park commenced, Allen Singleton with Hon. Wm. 
S. Young started a tannery, which was kept up for several years. 

Then Baker & Walker opened a tanyard on the lower end of Main 
street, which flourished for a while and then went down. Some years 
since Samuel V. & William Leedom opened a yard near the Presby- 
terian church. This establishment under the supervision of Samuel V. 
Leedom, the senior partner, did a fine business up to the untimely 
death of both partners. Mr. S. V. Leedom was a fine business man, 
well educated and an accomplished gentleman of unsullied character 
and an ornament to our town, social and pleasant in his habits and his 
death was a severe loss. 

After the death of the Leedoms the property was sold and the tan- 
nery fell into the hands of James B. Slack, Esq., the present holder, 
and under his management and personal labors he has accumulated an 
estate of a larger amount than he is willing to acknowledge (as his 
neighbors think). He seems always to have the cash to buy hides and 
bark without troubling anybody else. To see him in the streets, with 
his sleeves rolled above his elbows and his arms dyed yellow with sun- 
shine or tan-ooze, one would not suppose he was worth much. But watch 
him on Sundays when he goes into the Catholic Church to hear Father 
Dizney — then he might be taken for a Russian ambassador. Then 
go to his well-furnished house and see his genteel and accomplished 
family, and you would conclude that he was a gentleman of the first 
water. Then go to the board of trustees, of which he had been a mem- 
ber for three years, and you would take him for a man of sense. It 

94 



was to him we are indebted for the placing of the lights in our streets 
and for which the trustees got more cursings than dollars when first 
started, but 1 think the opposition has abated and the lights have become 
popular. I do not know that he ever learned the profitable art of hide- 
splitting, nor do I know that he tans on the shares as in olden times, 
for I think he buys all his stock of bullock hides, deer skins, sheep skins, 
hog skins and groundhog skins and sells the manufactured articles to 
his customers for cash. Now I have said enough about tanners and 
desist, lest one of them should want to use my hide. 

MANUFACTORIES 

Elizabethtown is as favorable a location for manufactories as any 
other place in the State, and it only requires men of enterprise and some 
capital to make a start. A water course running through the town, 
abundant water and never failing springs, inexhaustible forests of timber 
of the best kind, and our railroad and turnpike facilities makes it easy 
of access. 

In the shoe trade we have enough engaged to supply our home 
demand and much more. First, there is C. Hotopp, a sensible and well- 
educated German, who carries on the business of shoe and boot making 
at his new building on an extensive scale, and all who call on him will 
find him an accomplished and accommodating gentleman, and the only 
drawback on him is that he is a member of the board of trustees. On 
matter of policy he will not swerve an inch from what he thinks right, 
and he generally thinks correctly. Next is our friend John Rihn. Be- 
sides his fancy store he carries on his shoe and boot making. He is an 
honest workman, in proof of which I have in my possession a fancy pair 
of long-toed, turn-up slippers manufactured in his shop twenty-two 
years ago, and yet they are in an excellent state of preservation. Next 
there is William Christen, on Mulberry and Main Cross streets, who 
has carried on the business successfully for several years. He is a 
constant worker and an unobtrusive gentleman. Then there is John 
Heller, who is also a German, with a voice as clear as a bell-clapper, 
always wideawake. He has some workmen that I cannot say ever go 
to bed. for as I go home late at night I see them through the window 
stitching away, and as I return to my office before daybreak I find 

95 



them still hammering on their lasts. I think John will get along — if he 
doesn't his journeymen will. 

Now I have said enough about shoemaking. 

WAGON AND CARRIAGE FACTORY 

Dr. H. Baldwin carries on extensively. He keeps a supply of excel- 
lent workmen on carriages, buggies, springwagons and road or farm 
wagons, and turns out most beautiful work, either strong and substan- 
tial or light and airy, finished and painted in the most approved style, 
equal to any in the State. The establishment seems neither to slumber 
nor sleep, and it would be worth a man's while to spend an hour in going 
through his establishment. He operates by steam, and makes every- 
thing tell. His boiler is in a room where he dries his timber. Then 
the steam is conducted out to drive his planing mill and sawing ma- 
chinery, splitting plank from a quarter of an inch to any required thick- 
ness, also driving an excellent corn mill. All kinds of blacksmithing is 
done. 

The Doctor is a first-rate mechanic himself, and as a dentist no man 
in the State can beat him, so far as I know. He has adjoining his fac- 
tory a neat and handsomely finished and carpeted office, into which he 
occasionally takes a gentleman or lady, and in short order he fixes up 
their mouths and teeth to any required shape. He can take a snaggle- 
toothed man or woman into his shop, take the dimensions of their mouth 
organs, and in due time turn them out so much improved in looks that 
their neighbors hardly know them. 

Then our friend James B. LaRue and Major Dollins, who estab- 
lished a broom factory a short time since, are running full blast and 
turning out six dozen brooms daily of the neatest finish, fanciful and 
useful, and calculate shortly to increase the daily quantity to double the 
present number. They are Kentuckians, and are making arrangements 
to supply all the South with the means of keeping clean floors and 
hearths without going any further north than Elizabethtown. They 
deserve encouragement, and it is to be hoped they will receive it. 

CHAPTER XXHI 

It would be impossible for a mortal man to give a detached account 
of all the merchants who have opened and shut in this town from 1795 

96 



up to this date, nor would it add much to this history to do so. Some 
have come here and set up business and flourished for a brief period of 
time. Of such it is needless to say anything more than to remark that they 
came in like a meteor and departed leaving a blue streak behind them, 
and some were of such light metal that they made no streak at all, except 
a streak of a board bill on some landlady's day book unpaid. But as a 
class our merchants have been the most useful and influential men in 
our community. They labored harder and risked more to minister to 
the wants and comforts of the people, and to bring to their doors from 
distant cities not only the necessities of life but extra comforts. All 
our citizens before the time of merchants wore the home manu- 
factured articles for shirts, coats, vests and pants — so unusual was 
it to wear store clothes that a boy as a piece of news remarked : "Don't 
you think Bill Haywood wears a store bought shirt?" How did that 
come about? Why he dug ginseng, and sold it to Mr. Crutcher, a 
store-keeper, and he paid him in shirt stuflF and some other fixens. 
Before the merchants bought sugar, tea, and coffee, our worthy pro- 
genitors were content to drink sassafras, spice-wood or sage tea, as 
for coflfee there was no substitute, nor was any substitute for the 
latter article attempted until after coffee was introduced, for after 
having tasted coflfee and a relish for it accomplished, and purses 
being light in those days, a great many attempts were made to 
substitute by parching wheat, rye or corn enclosing it in a strong leather 
apron and with a shoe hammer, beating the mass on the door sill or a 
flat stone until it was sufficiently pulverized. It was then shook out 
of the apron into an iron pot, a sufficiency of water poured on it, 
then adding a sufficiency of maple sugar, (that was not to be grinned 
at) and some new milk or cream added, and all boiled together, 
until it was thought to be sufficiently cooked. It was then poured out 
into a piggen or small pail and placed on the table, which was 
formed of two long legged stools butted together so as to make 
the representation of a table, and dipped or poured out into tin 
cups and eaten with Johnny-cake bread, shortened at that, now don't 
think that I am going to forget the merchant. I will come back 
to him as soon as I have told you how a johnny-cake was made. First, 
every family had a johnny-cake board on hand ready for use. The 
board was nothing more or less than a thick clapboard about three feet 

97 



long and six or seven inches wide, shaved smooth with a drawing- 
knife. Then the corn-meal was worked up into a dough, mixed in 
with crackhngs. Do you know what a crackHng is ? Well, it is that part 
of swine's fat that refuses to go into lard. Or if no crackling was 
to be had, a slight admixture of lard or beef suet was stuck about in 
it. This mess was skillfully laid on the board, and properly spread, 
and the board propped up before a good fire. When baked nearly 
through the skillful use of a case knife liberated the cake from the 
board, then turned and the other side underwent a baking. Then 
on the table it went and was greedily devoured and washed down with 
this cofifee. The johnny-cake was first-rate, and as old as I am 
I would now ride two miles to breakfast with some old lady who under- 
stood the mystery. But, alas ! for human progress, it has banished 
the good old johnny-cake and substituted light rolls, corn batter cake 
and buck-wheat cakes and all such like. But lest you might undervalue 
the living of our ancestors, they had fried crout, fried bacon, ham 
and eggs (at five cents a dozen if their own hens did not lay them) 
sometimes fried chicken, turkey breast, partridge, squirrel or rabbit. 
But I must stop here for fear I should lose the thread of my dis- 
course in this long parenthesis and return to the merchant again. 

It took not only a man of enterprise, but a man of true courage to be 
a merchant in the days of yore, when there was no stage or railroad, or 
steam boat. It was a two months' trip to Baltimore or Philadelphia 
and back. Before starting on this hazardous and laborious trip, the 
merchant made his will, and called his friends together to take possi- 
bly the last leave of them, and it was generally noised over the country 
before the trip was taken that such a storekeeper was going for goods — 
I well remembered those times. 

The merchant mounted his horse with a brace of horseman's pistols 
on the cantle of his saddle, led another strong horse with a padded 
quilt containing about two thousand Spanish dollars — sometimes took 
a guard through the wilderness part of the way, and thus en- 
cumbered traveled about seven hundred miles, this at the best travel 
would take over hills, mountains and rivers, from sixteen to twenty 
days — laying in and selecting a stock of goods occupied about three 
weeks. Then employing several teams of Maryland or Pennsylvania 
wagons, each drawn by six Conestoga horses, over the mountains to 

98 



Pittsburg. That trip occupied from ten to fifteen days. At Pittsburg a 
flat boat was purchased and the goods stowed away in it. Then the 
broad horn, as it was sometimes called (in contempt after steamboats 
started) was floated down the Ohio, the merchant always on board, 
with his hands and consumed some fifteen or twenty days according to 
the stage of the water to reach the falls. If piloted over the falls, the 
boat bound for Elizabethtown and the southern counties would be 
finally landed at the mouth of Salt River, now West Point. Then 
the merchant posted ofif a messenger to his clerk calling for eight or 
ten wagons to be sent to him. The merchant remaining until the last 
box, crate, keg or barrel was on the wagons. Then like a bird liberated 
from his cage, he flew to meet his wife and children. It was a day 
of rejoicing of which all partook in the neighborhood. And when the 
wagons arrived the news spread like wild fire that the new goods 
had come and many a dollar had been hoarded for the occasion. 

Now with steamboats and railroads, the same journey is performed 
in so short a time, that one is hardly missed by his next door neighbor, 
so brief the absence. 

CHAPTER XXIV 

Major James Crutcher emigrated from Virginia early in the decade 
of 1780, and landed at the falls of the Ohio (now Louisville) while 
the Indians were troublesome. His relations from Nelson and Mercer 
counties hearing of his arrival, came to the falls to guard the Major 
and his father and family to Bardstown. The Major hesitated whether 
to settle in Nelson or Mercer county, but finally stopped in Bards- 
town and occupied a stone house, which since belonged to Nathaniel 
Wicklifife, the same house that was afterwards occupied by Melville 
Vining as a tavern. In this town on the 28th day of August, 1795, 
his eldest son, Thomas S. Crutcher, was born, the Major having 
married Miss Gilly Slaughter, and shortly after he removed to Eliza- 
bethtown. 

He was the first merchant of any note that I remember, in Eliza- 
bethtown, he was a resident in July, 1797, for he was one of the first 
Trustees appointed when the town was established, and remained 
a citizen until his death. He was then a very sprightly young man, 

99 



and was remarkable for his neat and genteel appearance and con- 
tinued so throughout his long life. I cannot say precisely the date 
he commenced as a merchant but he was in that business at my first 
recollection of him; my memory extends far back, for I distinctly 
remember the burial of my grandfather, Jacob Vanmeter, on the 17th 
or i8th day of November, 1798. But that was an isolated case — the 
open grave, the coffin and the crowd fastened on my attention so 
completely that I never forgot it, and it is likely that my recollection 
more extended does not reach back further than 1800. However, I 
recollect well some incidents which took place in the old cabin in 
which I was born, perhaps before 1800; one, for instance, my mother 
had a pot of hominy on the fire — when she was out I seized a pewter 
spoon, plunged it into the boiling pot and dipped it out smoking hot, 
slipped to the door to cool it, when an old gander met me and ran 
his flat bill into my spoon and gobbled my hominy — and ganders 
have never been favorites with me since, although the goose trade 
is now quite brisk in this town. 

Judge Crutcher was the main dealer in goods in this town for many 
years, and was very popular with all the ladies. By some strange 
perversion of nomenclature he was by half the men and by nearly 
all the ladies called Crutcher, and it was a daily occurrence to see the 
good old ladies coming to town to deal in Jimmy Crutcher's store. 
He has been mentioned several times in the previous part of this 
history — business of this kind was carried on a small scale for several 
years, as the sparse population did not justify large importations. 

He also dealt in cattle and sent several droves to Baltimore. Now 
to send cattle to Baltimore by steamboats and railroad would be a 
light affair in comparison with such an adventure as I am now speak- 
ing of. Then there was no steamboats and railroads and very poor 
roads of any kind; twenty miles a day would be a good drive with a 
large drove of cattle. The trip to Baltimore under the most favorable 
circumstances would occupy at least thirty-five days. In returning 
from one of these trips the Major met with a young man at Martins- 
burg, Virginia, named Horatio Gates Wintersmith, and prevailed on 
him to come to the West. Mr. Wintersmith entered the store as a 
clerk and soon after as partner, and the business was greatly enlarged. 



As I intend to speak of H. G. Wintersmith as a merchant and enter- 
prising citizen in a separate article, I will simply continue my narra- 
tive of Judge Crutcher. He was the soul of hospitality, and it was 
his delight to entertain his friends at his hospitable board, and he 
was generally useful as a Trustee of the Town, Trustee of the Hardin 
Academy, was Judge of the quarter session court and afterwards 
assistant Judge of the Hardin circuit court. He represented the county 
several years in the House of Representatives of the Kentucky Legis- 
lature, and was also a Senator of Kentucky and made a narrow escape 
of being Lieutenant Governor and of a seat in Congress. He was 
at the battle of New Orleans as aid to General Thomas. His was a 
useful and active life, laborious and patient in business. His trips 
East for goods on horse back amounted to an immense travel. One 
of his trips he took with him a servant man belonging to Major Ben 
Helm named Charles Slaughter (still living at 93 years). Their route 
led them across the Youhogeny river, a turbulent, rapid stream, spanned 
by a bridge thirty feet above the water. The snow was eighteen 
inches deep on the bridge, which was old and shaky, and in the middle 
of the bridge two planks were off, leaving a gap two feet wide; the 
bridge trembled at every step, and then the yawning chasm in the 
middle but it had to be crossed, it was their only chance; and when 
accomplished the Judge turned his horse around to look back at his 
tracks. The Judge remarked, 'T was always told to praise the bridge 
that carried me over safe, but I will never trust that one again." On 
arriving in Baltimore the servantman, Charles, who always knew 
which side of his bread was buttered, was not slow in announcing the 
fact that his master was a Judge. 

That was a grand move, and secured to himself as well as the 
Judge, very marked attention at the hotel. The landlord caught the 
title and it was "Judge what will you have, shall I send a bottle of 
wine to your room? Can I make any change to malce your quarters 
more pleasant?" Then the command from the landlord, "Peter, see 
that the Judge's waiter has a good and early breakfast, for the Judge 
wants to go out with him in the city." 

In short order the merchants were all obsequious. At night the 
Judge asked Charles how everybody knew he was a Judge. "Why," 
says Charles, "I had sense enough to tell it." Some years before his 

lOI 



death he retired from business and took his ease in the elegant man- 
sion now occupied by I. Robin Jacob, Esq. He was a man of firm 
constitution until late in life — his health failed and he lost his sight, 
and died at a good old age, upwards of 80 years. 

His son, Thomas S. Crutcher, Esq., is now living, in his 75th year. 
He is fourteen days younger than myself, a well educated quiet gentle- 
man. We were so near of an age that we might be considered as 
raised together. We were playmates in childhood — schoolboys together 
for years, and then he was sent to complete his education under Dr. 
Hume. He was afterwards a merchant for many years, and lastly, 
clerk of the Hardin county court. He is a kind-hearted, high toned 
gentleman. 

CHAPTER XXV 

TAILORS. 

The tailors or artists in cloth, so far as my acquaintance extends, are 
in the general a clever, neat dressing, gentlemanly class of men ; they 
also have the reputation of being liberal. There is a tradition that 
nine artists seated on their board, observed a poor man at their 
door, he was called in, and on investigation he was found to be an 
object of charity, and each of them gave the poor man a shilling. 
It was more money than the poor man ever had at one time before, 
so he determined to try his luck trading on it, and in the course of ten 
years he found himself rich, built himself a house and on his front door 
was painted in gilded letters these words : "Nine tailors made a man 
of me." And hence arose a scandalous perversion of the generous act 
of the tailors, and the saying is common that it takes nine tailors to 
make a man, thereby intending to convey the idea that a tailor is but 
the ninth part of a man, scandalum magnatum. 

As I have before stated, Archibald McDonald, a Scottish dancing 
master, was the first male tailor that ever stuck a stitch in town, and 
that he kept no shop, but worked around wherever a garment was to be 
made, and had his board thrown in. Jack Kendall, of whom I have 
before spoken, was the next I remember. Jack was a dwarfish cripple. 
One day while Jack was on his board a very slender and rather cadaver- 
ous looking man, six feet eight inches high, stopped at the door of 



Jack's shop and straightening up to his full height, was taking a view 
of Jack's dimensions ; without speaking a word, Jack in turn was 
surveying the height of his visitor ; Jack spoke first and said : "My good 
fellow could I get you to pick me a mess of squirrels?" 

The stranger replied : 

"Certainly you can, and moreover, my name is Jonathan Worrell — 
I am a crack tailor, and as you are the boss of this shop, and I want 
to get a chance to help you cabbage cloth." 

This struck Jack's fancy and he said : 

"If this shop board is wide enough to hold your legs, just twist 
yourself up here and go ahead. There is a job before you." Worrell 
understanding all the twistifications of the art, mounted the board 
and remained with Jack several years. Worrell himself was nearly 
as droll a genius as Jack. 

On one occasion in James "Perciful's tavern a wire-walker and a 
sleight-of-hand conjurer was performing; Worrell came in late after 
every seat was taken, walking deliberately up to a seated gentleman, 
making a bow, said : "Sir will you be kind enough to swap seats 
with me?" 

Without thinking, the gentleman arose and Worrell took his seat, and 
said to Worrell : "Where is your seat, sir ?" 

"O, anywhere you can find it," and he held on. 

The next was Major John Y. Hill, who set up a shop, employed 
William Greeman and worked together several years, but the Major, of 
whom I have spoken, was too energetic to confine himself to a shop 
board and commenced other business, was elected to the Legislature, 
and finally was a complete hotel keeper and in that business died uni- 
versally regretted. 

Then George W. Strickler carried on for some years, and then 
retired to a farm and yet lived a respectable gentleman farmer. 

About the year 1829 Addison Kinkead with a partner named Wilson, 
commenced and had a fine custom, but soon dissolved partnership. 
Wilson left — Kinkead held on and at various times had partners, but 
the most reliable one was William Showers, better known as Big 
Showers. Kinkead was a constant worker, a provident man, and 
accumulated a handsome property — he was always anxious that the 
customers should have a good fit. The customer would put on the 

103 



new coat, Kinkead would pull down the tail and slap the man on the 
back and say, "Big, is not that a bully fit?" then turn the man's face 
to Big and show him the front and say, "Big, don't you think that 
fits like a shirt." Big always proved the job well done, and the cus- 
tomer went off convinced that he was fitted to a T, and perhaps 
he was. 

Kinkead afterwards purchased a farm, made a model farmer, and 
died sometime since leaving a comfortable estate. He was fond of en- 
tertaining his friends at his home, and it was done in genteel style and 
his death was felt to be a loss to our community. 

Big soon after quit the board and formed a partnership with Isaac 
Radley, in merchandising, farming, sheriffing, and even in gold dig- 
ging in California, and a few years ago opened the Showers House 
as a hotel, and is yet doing a slashing business, but I think he ought 
to advertise in the News, as a printer has to live. 

Then Warren C. Gray and Cowley set up shops and did well. Cowley 
has left the State, but Gray still continues the business in this town; 
is an industrious, good workman and good citizen, and has raised a very 
genteel family in our midst. Henry Showers and James Moore for 
some years did a fine business as merchant tailors but in the full tide of 
prosperity they were burnt out, losing some six thousand dollars of 
stock. Showers left for the South during the war and was absent 
about four years — on his return he commenced business for Solomen 
Kaufman & Co., large merchants. He is very attentive and industrious, 
and is a quiet, respectable and social gentleman. 

Moore after he was burnt out, carried on the business for a while with 
Jonathan D. McNeil — McNeil married and went to the country for 
several years. He had served in the army a portion of the time of 
the late war with credit to himself. He is at present out of business 
and so is Moore — they were both good artists. 

Mr. George Munsch, a German, has also carried oh business quite 
extensively with several journeymen. 

CHAPTER XXVI 
I had commenced about merchants, but got decoyed off on a side 
switch, and fell in among the tailors etc., and now take up the mer- 
chants again. 

104 



The articles of merchandise have varied in different ages. 

About the year 1801 Robert Blakely and WiUiam Mont- 
gomery, two very interesting young Irishmen, came to Elizabeth- 
town and opened a dry goods store with a stock of goods, and soon 
became very popular. Their store was opened in a log house at the 
corner of the Public Square, on that spot where the Wintersmith 
House was afterwards erected and lately burned down. Perhaps 
their stock of goods was the first that deserved the name of an assort- 
ment. 

William Montgomery was an Orangeman, and engaged in the rebel- 
lion in Ireland in 1798. He was arrested and confined in a prison from 
which men were taken and executed daily. Montgomery was released 
from prison through the interposition of his aunt, who was the wife of 
the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland on the condition that he would emigrate 
to America. 

Shortly after Robert Blakely who was engaged in the same rebellion, 
evading the officers of the Government, concealed himself in a vessel 
and thus made his escape to the United States. They married sisters 
two of the daughters of William Withers, Esq., a very respectable 
Virginia gentleman near West Point. 

About 1820 Montgomery bought a farm near West Point, which 
was divided between them. Montgomery died about the year 1830, 
leaving an only son, the late Wm. W. Montgomery, Esq., the father of 
James Montgomery, Esq., a very prominent young lawyer of this 
town, and also A. B. Montgomery, Esq., at present a very efficient 
deputy sheriff. 

Blakely remained some years after Montgomery left town, and acted 
as sheriff for several years, and then settled on the farm and died 
about the year 1850, leaving a large family of respectable members 
of the community. 

There is something romantic and interesting in the history of these 
two men. Born on the same Island, engaged in the same rebellion, 
both compelled to leave to save their lives; emigrating to the same 
country, finding employment in the same establishment in the city of 
Baltimore, partners in merchandising in Elizabethtown, marrying sisters, 
and then living and dying on adjacent farms. 

105 



Horatio G. Wintersmith was born at Martinsburg, Virginia, in the 
year 1786, was the son of Doctor Charles Godfrey UHas Winter- 
smith, who was a surgeon in the British army and was taken prisoner 
by General Gates at the defeat of General Burgoyne. As he was a 
German and spoke the Hessian language he was put with that corps 
as a surgeon. 

After his capture he joined the American army, and became a part 
of General Gates' family, and went with him to Philadelphia, where 
he met with and married a widow Spangler, whose maiden name was 
Lighter, being the maiden name of his own mother. After which the 
Doctor settled in Martinsburg, where the subject of the notice was born, 
and having become much attached to General Gates, his captor, called 
his son Horatio Gates, which name seems to have been to a great extent 
in the Wintersmith family. 

As has been before remarked, as Major James Crutcher was return- 
ing on one of his trips to Baltimore, he came across young Horatio 
Gates Wintersmith at Martinsburg, and prevailed on him to come to 
Kentucky — and arrived here in 1806. As I was always intimate with 
him I have heard him frequently speak on his notions about Kentucky 
before he came to it. He had been taught to believe they were a semi- 
savage set of bruisers — wore leather hunting shirts and leather breeches 
— and they took particular pleasure in knocking a man down if he 
crooked his finger or refused to drink with him, and that he was 
astonished on landing in Louisville to see men dressed in broadcloth 
and acting as polite gentlemen. He entered as clerk in Major Crutcher's 
store, and shortly after was taken in as a partner. 

In about two years after he entered the firm, he was sent to Balti- 
more to lay in a stock of goods, and as he was a go ahead man, he laid 
in quite a large stock ; so much that the Major was alarmed and 
expressed some dissatisfaction. Wintersmith had provided for such 
a contingency, and told the Major that if he entertained doubts about 
the policy of getting such an abundant stock, that he would take it 
himself and be personally responsible. And as the Major had great 
confidence in the foresight and business tact of Wintersmith, with 
some grains of fear, he acquiesced, and opened a house also at Glasgow, 
Ky., with Henry Crutcher as a partner, and as proof of his adage, that 

106 



"ventures make merchants," it turned out that each of the partners 
laid the foundation of his future fortune upon that importation. 

The partnership continued some years when Wintersmith separated 
from the original firm, and brought many of his relations into busi- 
ness, having married Miss Elizabeth Hodgen, daughter of Robert Hod- 
gen, Esq. 

Wintersmith was an energetic business man and of great public 
spirit, and built largely, and also opened a hotel on an extensive and 
elegant scale. He was emphatically the life and soul of the town, and 
was widely known and respected. He was also the cashier of the Union 
Bank of Elizabethtown which was the only bank of that batch of forty 
odd independent banks that wound up safe and sound. But in the 
full tide of life and at the zenith of his prosperity he died January 
2ist, 1835 in the 49th year of his age. He was married three times, 
his second wife was Miss Morehead, the third. Miss Jane C. Stovall. 

By the first wife was born Charles G. Wintersmith, an eminent 
lawyer, who served several years in the Legislature of Kentucky, and 
was afterwards elected Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, which 
honorable situation he filled with dignity and ability. While a mem- 
ber of the Legislature as chairman of the Committee on Federal Rela- 
tions he made a report on the jurisdiction of the Ohio river, which was 
justly esteemed an able State paper. 

He also at one time was elected and served as Grand Master of 
the Grand Lodge of Kentucky and afterwards occupied the honor- 
able position of Grand High Priest of the same order of Ancient York 
Masons. 

Robert L. Wintersmith was another son of the first marriage. I 
have spoken of him before as a liberal gentleman and enterprising 
merchant and justly a popular man, but as he has the misfortune to 
be one of the most laborious Trustees of ihe town, I cannot answer for 
his future good name, although the Trustees work like dray horses, 
they get more curses than thanks. 

Major Richard C. Wintersmith was a son of the second marriage. 
It would be a difficult task to give a faithful pen portraiture of the 
Major — suffice it to say that he was Treasurer of the State of Kentucky, 
and during the late war he served with distinction in the Confederate 

107 



service. He is a portly, fine looking man, possesses a great deal of 
original wit, a man of decided ability, and universally popular, and 
if he cannot win a man by argument, he is certain to get him by his 
humor. 

Mrs. Margaret F. Wintersmith, a daughter of the second marriage, 
a most excellent lady who married her cousin, H. G. Wintersmith, 
a pleasant and accomplished gentleman, a good merchant and an 
amateur fruit grower. He was a man of fine taste and a first rate 
citizen. He left a fine family of children to the care of his widow, and 
well has she performed the heavy responsibilities which devolved upon 
her. I have not space to notice any of his decendants except his eldest 
son, Charles H. Wintersmith, who is a remarkable, sociable, pleasant 
gentleman, and has made discoveries in the healing art that Esculapius 
never dreamed of. As he advertises, it will be needless for me to give 
a list of his remedies. Suffice it to say that they are represented as be- 
ing sovereign remedies for nearly all the ills, pains and aches that 
the human family is heir to. 

Hon. H. G. Wintersmith is the only survivor of the third marriage. 
He has been a merchant and Judge of the Hardin County Court and 
is now a practitioner of law, and raising a fine family. He is a pleasant, 
polite gentleman, and a zealous member of the Baptist church. 



CHAPTER XXVH 

Audubon & Rozier were also merchants in town at an early date. 
Their clerk was James Hackley, who afterwards became an officer 
in the regular army, one of the most starchy and fine dressing men 
that ever lived in our town. 

This is the same Mr. Audubon who has since been world-renowned 
as the greatest ornithologist in the world, and has traveled through 
the United States, Central and South America, torrid, frigid and 
temperate zones, and has furnished the world the most complete 
specimens and descriptions of the feathered tribes, from the humming- 
bird and the sparrow up to the Condor, Ostrich, and Cassowary, with 
all the grave and splendid plumages that adorn or beautify the birds 
of creation. 

1 08 



Charles Helm and Samuel Stevenson were once merchants. Helm 
was a politician and served many years in the Legislature, and in his 
day the most popular man in the county, and no man could overcome 
him in an election. He was on Hopkins' campaign, and died several 
years since ; his son, Thomas J. Helm, was for many years clerk of 
the House of Representatives of the Kentucky Legislature, and was 
considered the best parliamentarian in the State of Kentucky. He 
died in Glasgow several years since. 

I tried two years under him to master the Latin language, but made 
a signal failure. Whether it was the fault of the teacher or the scholar 
I am not able to determine. 

After Helm and Stevenson there came up as merchants Major Ben 
Helm and General Duff Green. They occupied the stand now owned 
by Judge Eliot — they did business together several years, and as the 
partners were both distinguished men, special notice of each will be 
required. Major Ben Helm has been mentioned frequently in the 
preceding part of this history. 

He was bom in Virginia on the 8th day of May, 1767, came to 
Kentucky with his father, Hon. Thomas Helm, and landed at the 
falls of the Ohio (Louisville) in the fall of 1779, and removed to 
the Valley in the spring of 1780, then being thirteen years of age, 
consequently he underwent all the perils of that early day. As soon 
as courts were established in Hardin county he became prominent in 
the business of the county, was Deputy Surveyor, and one of the 
Trustees of Elizabethtown, and made the first survey of the town. 
He was also one of the first Trustees of the Hardin Academy and 
held that position for more than forty years. About the year 1800 
he was clerk of the Hardin county court, and shortly after received 
the appointment of clerk of the quarter session court, and when the 
courts were changed he was appointed clerk of the circuit court, which 
office he filled up to January, 181 7. 

Had filled the office of Brigade Inspector for many years. 

He was a prudent and provident man, and soon become independent 
in his circumstances. In the year 1812 there was a call for volunteers 
under General Hopkins. The Major then being forty-five years of 
age was a volunteer in Col. Aaron Hart's company, although in 
affluent circumstances and rather feeble health, he answered to the 

109 



call of his country. That was a mounted force, each man furnishing 
his own horse, gun and ammunition, rations for himself and provender 
for his horse. The force amounted to about two thousand men, there 
was no commissary or quartermaster, and not a solitar}' wagon ; his 
brother Charles Helm and George Helm, Thomas S. Crutcher — all 
of this town in the company : beyond Louisville there was no roads, 
the route was through the woods, guided by the sun in day and the 
stars at night. As they progressed they found the Indian towns 
deserted. When about thirty or forty miles beyond the Tippecanoe, 
the rear guard of the retreating Indians set fire to the tall grass of 
the prairie, which burnt with great rapidity, involving the safety of 
the army, and they would have been destroyed had they not sought 
a place of safety in a swamp near at hand. Finding it impossible to 
overtake the wily Indians, and the stock of provisions running low. 
General Hopkins marched the army back. On the return Major Helm 
was taken ver}- sick, and for want of an ambulance he had to be 
carried on a litter between two horses during a march of two days. 

The Major was a prosperous and neat farmer, as well as clerk and 
merchant ; he passed a long life of active usefulness, and having a 
considerable cash capital he was a blessing to the community — was 
a law abiding man and never exacted any usury, and indulged those 
indebted to him to almost any number of years. When the Union 
Bank of Elizabethtown was chartered the Major by universal consent 
was elected President of that Bank, and his signature to the notes 
was a passport for their circulation, and as before remarked it was 
the only bank of the batch of forty independent banks that wound 
up safe and sound. 

The Major was a highly honorable man, temperate in all his habits, 
and lived to a good old age. He died on the 24th day of Februar}', 
1858, in his 91st year. His venerable widow, Mrs. Mary Helm, of 
whom I have spoken, still lives in this town in her 83rd year. 

General Duff Green, the other member of the firm of Helm & Green, 
was born in Cumberland county, Kentucky, a well educated young 
gentleman, came to Elizabethtown in the latter part of the year 1812 
or nearly 181 3 and opened a school and continued some years. It 
was in this school that Governor Helm was principally educated. He 
was a man of great energ}- and a very aspiring man. He volunteered 

no 



on a campaign against the Indians in the company raised by Gov. 
\Vm. C. Duvall. He styled his company the yellow jackets and on that 
expedition he proved himself to be a man of undoubted courage. 

He received an appointment under the Government to survey public 
lands in Missouri where he spent considerable time. After marr}ing 
a daughter of Hon. Benjamin Edwards, he removed to Washington 
cit>% and was there during the Presidency of General Jackson. He 
was appointed Congressional Printer and took a prominent part in 
the administration, having become the confidential friend and adviser of 
• the President. Gen. Green was a tall, slender man, with an eye like 
a hawk, and whatever he undertook was generally accomplished. 

It would take a volume to trace Gen. Duff Green throughout his 
life, his various avocations, sayings and doings. My space will not 
admit of attempting to follow him, nor am I sufficiently posted, for 
after he left Kentucky-, I never saw him again. But he was a part 
of the history of our countr}- for more than fort}' years. 

CHAPTER XXVIII 

Hon. John B. Helm was born in Washington county, Kentuck}-, on 
the 28th day of October, 1797; while in Washington county his father, 
the late Hon. John Hehn, was assistant Judge of the Washington Cir- 
cuit Court. He Hved about eight miles from the seat of justice and at 
term times he would take little John up behind him on a dashing 
mare. After reaching Springfield and eating diimer, little John was 
strapped on the back of the mare, she would take him safely home, 
being then about seven years old, and his father would remain in 
court until Saturday night. 

Blue grass was then ( 1804) being introduced into Kentuck}\ On one 
of those courts John had gathered a little sack of blue grass seed and 
carried it behind his father to Springfield where he sold it for a cut 
half dollar. John thought himself rich and was about the happiest 
boy in all those parts. A short time after John's mother and several 
neighbor ladies, who were all great spinners and weavers, concluded 
to go to Bardsto\\Ti with their cloth for sale. A separate horse was 
packed with the cloth and little John was set upon it, Hke a toad upon 
a tussock, having his cut half with him, and it was agreed that he 



should lay it out himself, and was particularly instructed how to address 
the merchant. After the grown folks had concluded their trading, 
John's time came, he forgot all his instructions but stepped forward and 
laid his half dollar on the counter and said : "Sally wants a fan." Sally 
was his sister, two years younger than himself, and he was much at- 
tached to her — and by way of digression I might as well say right 
here, that this same Sally has been my wife for upwards of fifty-one 
years, and I hope may be for twenty-five years to come. 

A polite clerk said, "Sally shall have a nice fan," and so John be- 
stowed the first money he ever earned upon his sister, in the purchase 
of a fan about a half a yard long, which opened resembled a peacock's 
tail. About the year 1809 or 1810 the family removed to Breckinridge 
county, near Sugartreetown and the Ohio river. When between 8 and 
10 years of age he was sent to the Hardin Academy in Elizabethtown, 
under the tuition of Samuel Stevenson. At this age of the world, the 
rod was a potent aid to the school teacher and John was whipped to 
his lessons for about one year, and finally whipped into typhoid fever, 
which came very near closing his earthly career ; when recovered he was 
taken home and sent to a country school. 

Some few years after the Elizabethtown Academy fell into the 
hands of Duff Green. John was sent to Green's school, and although 
he was a considerable whipper, he adopted a different course with 
his pupils — gained his confidence and took great pains in fitting him 
for an active useful life, and when Green commenced merchandising 
he selected John as his first clerk in the house of Helm & Green which 
did a large business. When in this position the author formed a 
close and intimate friendship with John B. Helm which has continued 
without interruption up to this time, nearly sixty years. In a few 
years Green finding that merchandising was too narrow a sphere for his 
vaulting amibition, went to Washington City, as I have before named. 

Major Ben Helm, the senior partner of Helm and Green, purchased 
the Bush farm. Sally Lincoln, formerly Sally Bush, but now the 
step-mother of the future President, was entitled to a part of the 
purchase money — and a portion was to be taken out in the store, and 
she always brought little Abe to carry her bundles home. Abe would 
always take his seat upon a nail keg, and John always treated him with 



a lump of home made sugar, of which barrels were usually on hand 
in the store. Lincoln never forgot that kindness. 

After the store was closed John concluded to study law — went to 
Frankfort and read law in the office of the Honorable John Pope. After 
concluding his studies he went to Alabama and went into practice. 
Afterwards he returned to Elizabethtown and married, and commenced 
merchandising, and continued in that trade for several years, during 
which time he built himself a residence, now the property of Rev. 
Samuel Williams, also built a three story house on the corner of the 
Public Square, which he called the center of attraction. 

There is something remarkable about the Judgeship held by this 
family. Four generations without a broken link were judges. The 
great grandfather was a Judge of the Quarter Session Court of Fair- 
fax county, Virginia, his grandfather, Thomas Helm, was a Judge 
of the Hardin Court of Quarter Sessions, his father was a Judge in 
Washington Circuit Court, and to wind up he was Judge of the Court 
of Common Pleas in Hannibal, Missouri. 

After settling in Hannibal, Abraham Lincoln then a candidate for 
the Presidential honors having gone to Kansas on business — and re- 
turning through Hannibal learned that Judge Helm lived there, called 
at his office with his traveling friends, and after making some inquiries 
in order to identification — as forty years had wrought visible changes 
in both — Lincoln then turning to his friends remarked: "Gentlemen, 
here is the first man I ever knew that wore store clothes all the week, 
and this is the same man who fed me on sugar as I sat upon a nail 
keg — then minutely related the whole circumstance. Lincoln had a 
remarkably retentive memory, and never forgot a kindness. After he 
was elected President, Helm's recommendations were always regarded 
with favor, notwithstanding they were so bitterly at variance in politics. 

My readers will pardon me for taking up a whole chapter with the 
Hon. John B. Helm — my apology is that I look upon him as one 
of the remarkable men of the age, and although physically he is a near 
sighted man, yet mentally he is a far sighted man, and consequently 
has accumulated a handsome estate. He always was a Democrat in 
the strict sense of the term and partaken of all my juvenile sports — we 
differed to some extent in politics, but socially we were a unit. 

Alfred M. Brown was a useful citizen of Elizabethtown who began 

113 



his active life in Jolm B. Helm's store. He was born on Nolynn, a 
mile from Hodgenville, on Christmas Day, 1811. His father, William 
Brown, settled there in 1790, on land which had been patented to 
him by Virginia. One of William Brown's brothers, James Brown, 
was killed at the battle of Blue Licks in 1782. Another one was 
Patrick Brown, who was a member of the first Constitutional Con- 
vention in Kentucky, but who refused to sign the Constitution because 
it recognized slavery. Later on he became so convinced of the un- 
wisdom of slavery that he freed his negroes and moved to Illinois 
where he has numerous descendents now living. William Brown left 
a large family of children, most of whom have stayed in Kentucky. 
Among them were John Brown, the merchant of Munfordville, and 
Mrs. Sarah Churchill, of Mt. Gilead, Larue County. 

Alfred Brown came to John B. Helm as a clerk when he was a 
boy, in 1827. After a few years Mr. Helm made him his partner. 
He remained his partner until Mr. Helm's death, and was appointed 
by Mr. Helm executor of his estate. After Mr. Helm's death he con- 
tinued in the business until 1857 when he was elected County Clerk. 
He served as County Clerk until the Civil War when, because of his 
Southern sympathies, the Federal Army in control of Kentucky re- 
fused to allow him to be voted for. 

During the Civil War he and A. H. Cunningham and Sanford J. 
Poston were imprisoned much of the time in the Federal Prison at 
Louisville by the army because of their Southern sympathies. While 
imprisoned Brown studied law, and after the war was one of the 
busiest lawyers in Elizabethtown. 

He was one of Elizabethtown's most useful citizens. He was one 
of the first trustees and one of those who contributed largely to the 
building of the Hardin County Seminary. He was the first School 
Commissioner of Hardin County, serving without pay, and he laid 
out the school districts of the county which still stand. He was for 
several years one of the Commissioners who have held the county's 
Louisville & Nashville R. R. stock. He made a canvass of the county 
and published a circular in urging the people not to dispose of their 
holdings and it was largely the result of his efiforts that the county 
held this stock which in time became of great value. 

He married Mary Bell Stone of Bloomfield, Ky., July 10, 1844. 

114 



They spent 56 years of married life in Elizabethtovvn. They had four 
children — Bell, Edith, Fannie M. and Willie Davis. Fannie and Willie 
died in early childhood in the dreadful epidemic of scarlet fever that 
visited the town in March, 1859. 

Edith who married Thos. H. Hastings of Louisville died Nov. 7, 
1877. Bell who married Dr. Robert B. Pusey alone survived them. 
Mrs. Brown died Feb. 6, 1900, in her 80th year ; Mr. Brown, May 3, 
1903, in his 92nd year. 

CHAPTER XXIX 

W^ashington Whitaker who was one of the firm of John B. Helm & 
Co., was born in Bardstown, Nelson county, Kentucky, either in 1799 
or 1800. His father, Robert Henry W^hitaker, was killed at the raising 
of his house when Washington was first beginning to crawl. His 
mother was married to Major Ben Helm on the 17th day of May, 1803, 
and was immediately located with her son Washington in Elizabeth- 
town, Ky., where he was raised and educated by Major Helm, who 
treated him as if he were his own son. When grown he commenced 
merchandising with John B. Helm and Benjamin Helm, constituting 
the firm of John B. Helm & Co. This firm continued several years and 
did a thriving business. After the dissolution of that firm in the year 
183 1, he formed a partnership with Dr. Bryan R. Young but as the 
Doctor was in full practice in his profession, he could not give per- 
sonal attention to the business and sold out his interest to Whitaker 
the same year, 1831. In February, 1832, he took into partnership, Mr. 
A. H. Cunningham, a young business man who had been clerking for 
him, and that continued up to Whitaker's death, which occurred 28th 
of December, 1833. 

Mr. W'hitaker was an energetic and enterprising man and of untiring 
industry. His mind was slow in maturing and when he was a boy 
his mother was fearful that he would make a dull man, but as he 
grew up to manhood, his intellect kept pace with his body, and when 
he attained his full height, which was over six feet, with a slender 
frame, he was a fine looking man, and had a thorough investigating 
mind, and fine foresight in business matters. Fie had a fine stock of 
public spirit and commenced the improvements at Claysville for a 
tannery on a large scale, which was carried on in his name until his 

"5 



death. He owned quite a number of slaves at the time of his death — 
he willed them all to Thomas D. and Elisha S. Brown and then they 
were to be free and sent to Liberia, and the hire fixed upon them 
was to be divided among the slaves when they departed. 

By his will he also provided for his partner, A. H. Cunningham, 
and by arrangement Mr. Cunningham had the use of $4,000 for five 
years without interest. He also devised $5,000 to a lady for whom 
he had a high regard, and the balance of his estate to his step-father, 
Benjamin Helm, and his wife. His death was a severe blow to the 
town and was much regretted. 

A. H. Cunningham, who has been spoken of in connection with 
Washington Whitaker, was born in Hardinsburg, Breckinridge county, 
on the 3rd day of October, 1810 — with his father's family he removed 
to Leitchfield in Grayson county, and on the 28th day of August, 18 18, 
he came to Elizabethtown and commenced as clerk with the house of 
John B. Helm & Co. When that firm dissolved and Whitaker & Young 
commenced a partnership, Cunningham went with them and in 
February, 1832, he became a partner of Whitaker, as is before stated, 
and continued in that firm until Whitaker's death. Mr. Cunningham 
was married in May, 1832, to a daughter of the late H. G. Winter- 
smith. After the death of Whitaker, Cunningham did business alone 
until the first day of January, 1840 — he took in as a partner Lewis 
Highbough, but he died in 1841. In January, 1848, Major Robert 
English became a partner for two years. First of January, 1850, 
Robert D. Geohegan was a partner until September, 1856. At that 
date J. W. Matthis was a partner and continued to ist January, i860. 
After which Mr. Cunningham carried on the business alone until the 
7th day of August, 1869, when he was burnt out. He then sold the 
ground on which the store house stood and retired from business. 

Mr. Cunningham was always a fair trading man and understood 
his affairs thoroughly, never used any devices or humbuggery to facili- 
tate sales, has his set prices and however anxious he might have been 
to make a sale — he never pushed an article upon a man, and his was 
never called the cheap store, but as he was known to be honest and 
kept correct books — a customer always knew what he was buying — 
and that it was of the quality represented. And by this straightfor- 
ward course he has accumulated a handsome estate, and lives well 

116 



and entertains his friends liberally. I have two reasons for not stating 
how much of this world's goods he has acquired ; first, he is still alive 
and- it would not be prudent to state it, and the second reason is, I 
am not posted and could not tell if I would. 

CHAPTER XXX 

Major Robert English, one of Mr. Cunningham's partners, son of 
Noah English, was born in Virginia, and removed to Hardin county. 
Robert was a sprightly boy and attracted the attention of the late 
Horace G. Wintersmith, a merchant before spoken of. Mr. Winter- 
smith was also postmaster and Robert generally accompanied his mother 
on coming to town shopping. On one of these visits the postmaster 
engaged him to carry the mail from Elizabethtown to Leitchfield in 
Grayson county. In those days a post-rider was looked upon as an 
important personage, and his passing up and down this thirty miles of 
road caused as much excitement among the natives as a train of cars 
would at this time. Persons would collect at certain points to see the 
post-rider go by, and Bob was not ignorant of the consequence attached 
to him, and made the most of it. His fidelity and good humor were 
highly satisfactory to his employer, and he was transferred from the 
mail business to clerk in the store, and finally a partnership. He after- 
wards became a partner of A. H. Cunningham, and was in the business 
several years and in various firms. At length he purchased a fine farm 
in the neighborhood, and removing to it he soon became a comfortable 
gentleman farmer. While farming he was elected Sheriff of the county, 
and then to a seat in the Legislature of Kentucky. He was a kind, 
liberal and hospitable man, an honest, frank, open-hearted and open- 
handed man and deservedly popular, and his death was considered a 
serious loss to the county. 

Haden E. English, son of Weeden English, was born in Virginia, 
on the second day of January, 1815, and came with his father to Ken- 
tucky in 1820; in the year 1831 or 1832 he entered the store of Wash- 
ington Whitaker and continued there eighteen months. In 1834 he 
commenced as clerk for Hugh Mulholland and continued with him 
eighteen months, and then married. He then bought the interest of 
Robert English in the firm of English, Wintersmith & Co., and re- 
mained in that firm three years. In 1838 he opened a store in the three 

"7 



story building erected by John B. Helm, and called the place The Center 
of Attraction, until at last he was called by his intimate acquaintances 
by the name of Center. He continued in business with various firms up 
to the year 1848, when he purchased a farm and settled on it and became 
a prosperous farmer. As a farmer or merchant he was a go ahead 
man, always polite, a fine talker, and could show up the right or bright 
side of a piece of goods — a wagon load of corn or oats, fat steer or 
hogs — and when his crop was growing it was refreshing to hear him talk 
of it — likes to entertain his friends and knows how to do it — and has 
the ability to draw upon his dairy for milk and upon his splendid pond 
for fish, and upon his barnyard for all sorts of feathered fowls — but 
I must hold in for fear I might overrun him with a hungry company — 
indeed I know some who domesticated themselves there until their 
visit became a visitation. 

Since I came to sum up the merchants who have done business 
years back, it would be an interminable job to go into particulars, suffice 
it to say that there has been more men in this town engaged in mer- 
cantile pursuits than any other town in my knowledge of the same 
limited population. 

Bernard Staadeker was born in 1838, Waldorf, Grand Duchy of 
Baden, in Germany — came to America in 1858 — was for some years in 
the employment of Mr. Schlesinger, and for several years doing busi- 
ness in Louisville. George M. Cresap came from Alleghany county, 
Maryland, to Kentucky in 1857, and was for sometime in the employ of 
the Louisville and Nashville railroad. These two compose the firm 
of B. Staadeker & Co. They have a large stock of goods and are 
both pleasant gentlemen to do business with. 

Solomon Kaufman & Co. Sol Kaufman, Samuel Goldnamer and 
Joseph Josenberger compose the above firm. Mr. Kaufman came from 
the city of Mentz, in the Grand Duchy of Hesse Darmstadt, in 1848. 
Samuel Goldnamer was born in Rhine Bavaria, and came to the United 
States in 1855. This firm also does a large business on A. Depp's corner 
— all are accommodating, pleasant gentlemen well educated in their call- 
ing. Mr. Kaufman resides in Louisville, the other two live here and 
have families. 

C. W. Yeager & Co., have also opened two stores on Main-Cross 
street. One of them a fancy store under the special superintendence 

118 



of Mrs. Yeager, where dress goods, millinery articles, bonnet trim- 
mings, etc., may be had of all shades and varieties. The other store 
adjoining is the male department. 

In speaking of merchants, I omitted to name Charles G. Winter- 
smith, Sr., a brother of Horace G. Wintersmith, before spoken of. He 
came to this town several years after his brother, and opened a store 
of dry goods and was well known and highly respected as an honorable, 
intelligent and polite gentleman — he was a quiet, good man. He was 
born in Berkely county, Virginia, September 17th, 1789, and died Octo- 
ber I, 1852. His son Horace G. Wintersmith of whom I have before 
spoken, was born in Virginia, October 20th, 181 1, and died in Elizabeth- 
town, July II, 1854. C. Godfrey Wintersmith was also a merchant; 
(first in partnership with his father) and continued for many years 
after his father's death — he was a perfect gentleman, modest and re- 
spectful to all, and everybody loved him. He married the daughter 
of the late David Cooper Swan, of whom I intend hereafter to speak. 
C. Godfrey was born 24th December, 1822, and died 26th January, 
1859, leaving two beautiful and interesting children, Godfrey and Kate, 
and as the mother had been dead several years they were left without 
any parents, but were taken care of for many years by their aunt, 
Mrs. Mary Crutcher, more familiarly known as Mary Dock, as her 
deceased husband was a Doctor — and she cared for them with all the 
tenderness and solicitude that the most affectionate parent could 
have done. 

James West, a splendid workman, who built the house now occupied 
by I. Robin Jacob. It was built for Major James Crutcher about the 
year 1820, and although fifty years have passed the work in that 
house can challenge any work since done in this town for elegance and 
neatness of finish. West also built the fine house of the late John H. 
Harlan at Frankfort. 

Ambrose Matthis, still living in the neighborhood is a veteran builder, 
and can show a good deal of fine work in this town. 

John S. Cully and Jacob Strickler were also good workmen. Cully 
was rather a prominent man, very popular, of fine wits, and also served 
in the Legislature. 

I have now gone through a tedious detail of merchants, mechanics, 
etc. ; I may have omitted some but have spoken enough to show that 

119 



our town has got along in the usual way of slow going towns, as ours 
has been for many years, but has received an impetus that promises to 
make it a place of notoriety, and a pleasant place to live and die at. 
One thing is now, and has been for many years, remarkable for the kind- 
ness to the sick and the stranger, a sympathy for the afflicted which does 
not stop at mere words of condolence, but shows itself in substantial 
and tangible forms. Many of* our citizens have substantial means and 
some few in affluent circumstances, but there is not found among us 
that class designated stuck up, or putting on aristocratic airs. 

I now propose to go back to about 1785, and speak of the prominent 
men that figured in those days that tried men's souls — advancing a 
little higher up, speak of men of note that came in and grew up with 
the town and have gone the way of all flesh. Then take up the bar 
and speak of the lawyers who have figured in our courts interspersing 
it with courts and anecdotes. 

Then speaking of the disciples of Esculapius who have figured 
among us. And conclude with that class who have the training of the 
young ; teachers who have taught the young ideas how to shoot. 

CHAPTER XXXI 

It is a matter of some delicacy for me to speak of my own father, 
but as he was one of the very first adventurers to the Valley, as early 
as 1779, and has been dead for more than 46 years, he has passed 
into the history of by-gone days, and it would be mock modesty to 
refrain from speaking of him on account of relationship. His father, 
James Haycraft, was an English sailor and belonged to the British 
navy. About the year 1740, the ship in which he sailed touched at 
some of the harbors of North America, then belonging to the crown 
of Great Britain, and how he happened to stay, none living can now 
tell, whether he was discharged or took French leave, none can tell, 
but certain it is, he liked the looks of the country and concluded to 
make it his home. He married in Virginia, and had three sons and 
one daughter ; the sons were James, Samuel and Joshua. The mother 
died, and the father also, when the eldest of the children was 11 years 
old, and consequently the children learned nothing about their ancestors 
beyond the vague impressions formed in infancy. They were, as a 

120 



matter of course, left in a destitute condition. The daughter died 
while an infant, and James, Samuel and Joshua were taken by Col. 
John Nevill, a man of wealth, and raised in his house with his son, 
afterwards General Presley Nevill. 

Samuel, the subject of this notice, was born on the nth day of 
September, 1752, and at 11 years of age was domiciled at Col. Nevill's 
where he received a common English education. After becoming of 
age he left Col. Nevill's, carrying with him a letter of recommenda- 
tion as a sober, honorable and industrious young man. Col. Nevill, 
after the close of the Revolution, had an appointment under General 
Washington as exciseman in the Alleghany country; his business 
was to assess all the distilleries then in operation. The office was 
extremely unpopular with the distillers, as it always has been, and 
always will be ; and there sprung up a rebellion called the whisky 
insurrection. The whisky men came in a body to Col. Nevill's and 
burned him out root and branch ; and the insurrection, close upon 
the heels of the revolution, had to be put down by an armed force. 
I have heard my father say that the old Colonel was a man of some 
education, of great firmness and resolution, rather rough in the 
exterior, had a noble, kind and generous heart, was in the habit of 
swearing himself, but woe-be-tide the urchin, white or black, under 
his control, that happened to utter an oath in his presence. His usual 
mode of punishment for such an offense was to take oflf his broad 
brimmed beaver hat, which he had worn for fifteen years, and had 
become so saturated with grease as to weigh some ten pounds, and 
wisping it into a kind of roll, would take the fellow a wallop about 

the ears that laid him as flat as a pan cake, and saying: "D n you, 

do you swear ?" But for his sterling worth he was known and esteemed 
to a wide extent. 

Samuel Haycraft entered as a common soldier in the Revolutionary 
war; served his time out and had an honorable discharge. But while 
in the army, with his Revolutionary uniform on, as a wedding gar- 
ment, he married my mother, Margaret VanMeter, in Pittsburgh, Pa., 
and, soon after leaving the army, in the fall of 1779, emigrated, with 
the whole VanMeter family, to Kentuck}^ and in 1780 he settled on 
the hill above the Cave spring, in a fort which he built and in which 
several families resided. It was in the block house of this fort where 



my father-in-law, the late Hon. John Helm, was married to my 
mother-in-law, Sally Brown, on the 22nd day of March, 1787, as has 
been before noticed in this history. 

Mr. Haycraft was identified with and shared in the trials and 
dangers incident to so early a settlement ; in a new country, infested 
by wild, savage beasts, and the savage Indians, who claimed the coun- 
try as their own. 

It was in this beautiful land of Kentucky that Haycraft, with wife, 
children and friends, settled down for life ; but it was a settlement 
that had to be fought for in order to maintain it, and if any country 
in the world was worth fighting for it was this. He participated in 
all the perils consequent upon the settlement ; with the growth of the 
county he kept pace ; served in various offices, as sheriff, judge of the 
quarter sessions and assistant judge of the circuit court, and repre- 
sented his county in the Legislature of Kentucky. As he was nearly 
the first man to build a house in town, and partook largely of hospi- 
tality natural to early adventurers and early settlers, he had his full 
share of custom in court times and elections ; men then came forty 
to fifty miles to vote, and seventy or eighty miles to court, and the 
most of them got accommodation at the free tavern. When a boy I 
have known as many as thirty persons lodged and fed of a night, all 
free. In those days a man would just as soon be caught with a sheep 
on his back as to charge a wayfaring man for lodging or food, unless 
he was a regular built tavern keeper. 

He was a small farmer ; was a good deal in public life ; raised a 
large family and died with a spotless reputation on the 12th day of 
October, 1823, aged 71 years, i month and 4 days. 

CHAPTER XXXII 

Among the early settlers of this town was Hardin Thomas. He was 
the father of Jack Thomas, Isaac Thomas, Jesse Thomas, Miles H. 
Thomas, Alex Thomas, and of several daughters, one of whom married 
Col. Jacob B. Hayden, our present Senator. 

Hardin Thomas was a man of peace. He married Hetty Gerrard, 
a daughter of really the first Baptist preacher in Kentucky. He was a 
farmer, and his life was not such as to attract a great deal of attention 



from the outside world ; but he was the "noblest work of God" — ''an 
honest man." And not only an honest man, but was possessed of a 
degree of benevolence rarely met with in this world of dollars and cents. 
His house was a kind of central point for the neighborhood ; and as 
at that period, when churches were few, and religious services rather 
poorly attended to, a little visiting and good eating on the Sabbath day 
w^as not looked upon as at this day ; on the contrary the folks worked 
all the week and considered that resting on the Sabbath consisted in 
visiting friends, having social chats, and a good share of table indulg- 
ences. So whether Hardin Thomas and Cousin Hetty preferred it or 
not, the Sabbath was not a day of rest to them, but rather a day of labor. 
The neighbors and young folks poured in every Sabbath, or nearly so. 
I have often been one of them, and partook of the hospitalities of the 
united head of the family ; and those hospitalities were not extended 
with a stinted or grudging hand, but flowed bountifully from their dili- 
gent hands and generous hearts. 

And these Sunday doings were not all. But if a penniless man or 
woman sick, afflicted or distressed, passed through our country, they 
invariably dropped in to Hardin Thomas' and were there nursed, fed 
and lodged and kindly treated. And if you have been inclined to 
insult Hardin Thomas or his wife let one of these unfortunates ask them 
Vv'hat was to pay for board, etc. 

Everybody loved Hardin Thomas and his wife. He was very popular, 
but never had any political aspirations or thirst for office. I once 
heard a man ask Hardin Thomas why he did not offer for the Legisla- 
ture. His reply was that he "would as soon be found with a sheep on 
his back." He lived in a house rather better than usual for that day, 
the carpenter's work of which was executed by Thomas Lincoln, the 
father of the late President ; and the most of that work is to be seen 
at this day, sound as a trout, although done upwards of sixty years 
ago. 

Hardin Thomas was a man of portly form and a pleasant countenance 
— just such a one as was comfortable to look at, and was a complete 
index of the inner man ; but many years since he and his good wife 
have finished their courses and gone to their reward. His mother was 
a Hardin, the daughter of John Hardin, who was a brother of the old 
original Mark Hardin, of George's Creek. Pennsylvania. His father 

123 



was named Owen Thomas ; he was the brother of Gen. John Thomas, 
who commanded the Kentucky troops under Gen. Jackson at the battle 
of New Orleans. One of his sons. Miles H. Thomas, still lives near 
Claysville town. He is a clever, honest farmer ; and if it was not dis- 
paraging to the character of his intellectual powers, I would say that 
he-does not know how to do a mean thing. 

One peculiarity more of Hardin Thomas I will name. He was so 
honest himself that he was unsuspicious of others. And although he 
lived upon a public road leading from Louisville to Nashville, he trusted 
all to luck ; had no lock to his house, or desk, or smoke-house, or corn- 
crib. I heard him myself say that there was not a lock about his house. 
And singular as it may be, I never heard of his losing anything by theft. 

But those halcyon days have fled ; they have rolled back into the womb 
of the past, and only held in remembrance by the few aged persons, ling- 
ering on the shores of time, who are yet in our midst, but silently and 
stealthily and steadily approaching the verge of their appointed bounds, 
and ere long will vacate the seats they occupy, to be filled by younger 
and stronger men, who in the vigor of youth and manhood shall fill 
their destiny and in time become old and fade away. But these are 
rather melancholy reflections, but should not be so, as it is the established 
order of nature, ever since Adam and Eve were expelled from Paradise ; 
and yet the world is always full of youth, manhood and old age. 

The days last spoken of were days of generous hospitality ; the size 
of a man was never taken into account when there was such an abun- 
dance of out of doors all around. Apropos Lewis Thomas, who resided 
on Hardin's creek, in Washington county, was a brother of Hardin 
Thomas, of whom I have last spoken. He belonged to the Methodist * 
Episcopal Church. In those good old camp-meeting times one was 
held near his house. On those occasions hundreds, perhaps a thousand, 
attended who had no camp-building, and were dependent on the hos- 
pitality of all the neighborhood around ; and Lewis Thomas living on 
the pebble road, as a hving stream of humanity were passing his house, 
he ran out, and, with a cheerful voice, called on them to stop, adding 
that his house was only eighteen feet square, but that his heart was 
one hundred feet square. 

The Baptists also had an annual association, which called together 
immense crowds. On such occasions, at the close of each day's serv- 

124 



ices, there was read in a loud voice from the stand a Hst of house- 
keepers who gave invitations to dine, giving their locations and dis- 
tance from the grounds. It made no difference what kind or size of 
a house it was, there was always provided an abundance of excellent 
food and many of the liquors of the day ; and as for sleeping, there 
was no difficulty about that — pallets on the floor down stairs, up stairs, 
in the kitchen, in the hay-loft, and all around — all were happy and cheer- 
ful. I well remember on one occasion of lodging in a room about 
twenty-five feet long and about fourteen feet wide with upwards of 
thirty persons. The whole floor was spread with blankets, quilts and 
mattresses. We laid down in rows, head to the wall and foot to 
foot, and all slept well. On such occasions the negroes caught the spell 
of their masters, and would hail passers-by to stop, saying: "stay 
with us, we have more people here and more to eat, and better cooks 
than they have over yonder. So round to and come in." 

Once upon a time there was an association held with the Mill Creek 
Baptist Church in Nelson county, about three miles northeast of Bards- 
town. The venerable Benjamin Edwards and his most excellent wife 
were members of that church. His place was called Shilo. He was 
the father of the late Gov. Edwards Dr. B. F. Edwards, Cyrus Edwards 
and Mrs. Mary Helm, of our town, still living. On that occasion he 
gave a general invitation, and lOO came to his house and were fed 
and lodged for three days in a most comfortable manner. A little 
episode occurred on the Sabbath morning before starting to church. 
The lOO mouths exclusive of the thirty in the family ate up more fresh 
meat than had been provided. The old gentleman was quite a stickler 
for the observance of the Sabbath, but here was a difficulty, and asked 
the counsel of Gardener Grundy, one of his guests, and Brother Grundy 
soon settled the point by saying, "Rise, Peter, slay and eat." Accord- 
ingly, up went for the hogs, and all were provided for. 

Speaking of the negroes who were their servants, they felt identified 
in interests with their masters, and were true to defend their character 
or property, and if be, to fight for them. Old General Braddock, a 
negro man and slave of one of my uncles, took his rifle and went a 
campaign against the Indians, and he says he killed nine of them, 
for which he was awarded his freedom. 



Although a Httle out of my boundary I will relate a matter that was 
told to me by the late Rev. Marcus Lindsay, a Methodist preacher. A 
settlement of several families at Harrod's Station, near Harrodsburg, 
cultivated jointly a field a little distant from the houses. Some one of 
the settlement owned a little runt of a negro, and he was reserved as 
common stock to help the women. The men went to the field in the 
morning, stationing one of the party as a sentinel. His duty was to 
watch for the Indians and give the alarm, but it so happened that a 
party of Indians had, before being noticed, gotten between the farm- 
ers and the house and were rapidly pushing forward. The alarm 
was given, but not soon enough to prevent a powerful Indian force 
entering a house before the door was closed. The little negro, im- 
mediately yoked in with the Indians with all the vim of a Billy-goat. 
The Indians soon floored the little negro, and while attempting to stab 
the negro the woman of the house seized an axe and at one blow split 
open the Indian's head and killed him. The little negro crawled from 
under the Indian, shook himself and said : "Now, Mistress, let in an- 
other," supposing he could go through the same feat. And it was 
merely accidental that the negro escaped. The Indian > having that 
morning killed a woman who had on an apron, this he took from her 
person and tied it on himself, covering his knife, and in fumbling about 
the apron for his knife he lost his life. 

This incident is related to show the feelings between master and serv- 
ant in those days. 

CHAPTER XXXIII 

Ambrose Geoghegan, Sr., was born in the city of Dublin, in Ireland, 
on the 30th day of March, 1753, and graduated in Dublin as an engi- 
neer, and was in other respects an accomplished scholar. 

This family is noticed in Macaulay's History of England as being 
one of the party that espoused the cause of King James, the Second, 
who was deposed, and William, Prince of Orange, in conjunction 
with Mary, his wife, ascended the throne ; and when king William 
invaded Ireland the Geoghegans were found in arms. Ambrose 
Geoghegan while yet a single man emigrated to America and landed 
in Baltimore on the 6th day of May, 1771, and was married to Peggy 

126 



Zelman on the 6th day of May, 1777 ; and after losing his wife, married 
again in 1784. He was Hving at Hagerstown, in Maryland, until about 
1804, when, with his sons Denton, Thomas and J. H. Geoghegan, 
came to Kentucky and stopped at the Crab Orchard, in Lincoln county, 
and while there purchased of Arnistead Churchill the Hynes Station 
track, part of which is now in Elizabethtown. The deed bears date 
of 1805, and recognizes him as a citizen of Lincoln county. His 
grandson A. D. Geoghegan, Esq., says he arrived at Hynes' Station 
on the 2ist of February, 1808. But that must be a mistake as the 
deed bears date of December 29, 1806, and recognizes him as a citizen 
of Hardin county. Immediately after coming to Hardin the family 
purchased several adjoining farms. 

Ambrose Geoghegan, Esq., was an old man when he came to Ken- 
tucky, and was possessed of considerable means, was an accomplished 
engineer and surveyor, and, moreover was an accomplished gentle- 
man and of social disposition, and soon formed the acquaintance of 
the principal citizens of the town and neighborhood, and, in order to 
cultivate friendly and social relations, got up a Whig club, which fre- 
quently met, when the free interchange of ideas and discussions on 
the subjects of the day were well calculated to make friendship and 
brighten up society. 

The first celebration of the 4th of July was a barbecue dinner with 
a speech and toasts that I ever remember of was gotten up by him, 
and was freely participated in by all the gentry of the county ; and by 
his example and under his influence the state and tone of society was 
greatly improved. His son, Thomas, died soon after he came to Hardin 
county, leaving an only daughter, who at an early age married John B. 
Wathen ; and they are both dead. 

The oldest son, Denton Geoghegan, Esq., was a large farmer for 
several years, and finally settled in Elizabethtown, where he resided 
until his death, on the 5th day of April, 1850. 

He was for many years a justice of the peace; was a remarkably 
clear-headed man, strictly honorable in all his dealings, and noted 
for his punctuality. He raised two sons and several daughters. One 
only son survives Ambrose D. Geoghegan, Esq. ; he is also a large 
farmer, stands high in this community, and has all the traits constitut- 
ing file clever gentleman — social, generous, hospitable and kind. One 

127 



daughter, Rebecca, married Col. Chas. Cecil, who wisely gave his sons 
a thorough education, and they have proved themselves to be energetic, 
thorough-going men, and they have succeeded in establishing one of 
the most popular colleges in Kentucky, known as Cecilian College, 
about six or seven miles from Elizabethtown and about a quarter of 
a mile from the Elizabethtown and Paducah railroad, the stopping 
place for which, is Cecilia Station. The College is presided over by 
Henry A. Cecil as President, and Thomas G. and A. D. Cecil as Pro- 
fessors ; and a more accomplished and gentlemanly trio would be diffi- 
cult to find. 

John H. Geoghegan, the last and youngest son of A. D. Geoghegan, 
Sr., inherited the old homestead, Hynes' Station, and lived there until 
he died, on the nth day of January, 1854, aged 75 years. He was a 
correct, upright citizen of regular habits. He was rather peculiar in 
his habits and manner of life; wrote a beautiful hand, and took note 
of all passing events that he deemed worthy of remembering; was 
fond of a gun ; kept a good one, and by the way of recreation, made 
havoc of small game, but was too systematic to let it interfere with 
his business, which was that of farming and he was a model farmer. 
He reared a considerable family — six sons and two daughters. The 
sons were Dr. Thomas D. Geoghegan, Dr. Ambrose E., Dr. Denton, 
Robert D., John H., and William S. Geoghegan. His house and his 
hand were open to his relations and friends. He raised his sons to 
work, and in their younger days worked side by side with his colored 
servants. He was a kind master and provided bountifully for their 
wants, and allowed them great privileges. He gave his sons as good 
an education as the country afforded. Three sons studied physics, and 
became excellent doctors of medicine. The oldest. Dr. Thomas D. 
Geoghegan, settled at West Point, Hardin county, and had a suc- 
cessful practice during his life. The Doctor's location favored an 
extensive practice, living at a point where Hardin, Jefferson and 
Bullitt counties connect, and in four miles of Meade, on the Ohio 
river, the lines between Kentucky and Indiana. His practice extended 
largely over all the above-named counties, and in two counties in 
Indiana. This heavy practice, of course, kept the Doctor much from 
home. On one occasion a man came for the Doctor, and while wait- 
ing employed himself in reading the sign on the shop, "Dr. Thos. D. 

128 



Geoghegan." The name is pronounced Go-ha-gan; and the man in 
waiting not being an apt scholar, made it read Dr. Thomas gone 
again. Becoming tired, he left for some two hours. On returning and 
looking at the sign, he exclaimed, "There now, I'll swear he's gone 
again." 

He died suddenly on the 9th day of December, 1863, in the fifty- 
second year of his age, leaving a very respectable and intelligent family. 

Dr. Ambrose E. Geoghegan, after studying his profession, married 
in Leitchfield, and opened practice there for several years, then returned 
to Elizabethtown, and had a successful practice for several years, and 
during that time discovered a powerful medicine, composed of prickly 
ash, smart weed, walnut leaves, brandy and sugar, so concocted as 
to produce a pleasant medicine called "Hydropiper" — no doubt a very 
valuable discovery, and its merits not yet fully tested. In partnership 
with Dr. Young and Slaughter, a large quantity was manufactured — 
still not sufficient to meet the demands, for its fame spread far and near. 

The Doctor now lives at River View, in Jefferson county — a very 
pleasant, social gentleman, and one of the finest talkers in creation. 
Doctor Denton Geoghegan, was born at Hynes Station, April 23, 
1824; remained with his father and labored on the farm until 1842. 
He then went to Mississippi and followed the brick-mason trade for 
two years, and returned home with greatly improved health and began 
the study of medicine under his brother. Dr. Thos. D. Geoghegan, at 
West Point, and graduated at the Medical College in Louisville in 
1846; then practiced at West Point until 1854; then removed to Eliza- 
bethtown and practiced there until his death, which happened Nov. 
16, 1869. 

He became a member of the Episcopal Church, and was a liberal 
practitioner, never charging widows or preachers ; was a kind master, 
and had many excellent traits of character, but never married. His 
death was unexpected and much regretted. 

Robert D. Geoghegan, our enterprising and accomplished merchant, 
has been spoken of in a former part of this history. He is a valuable 
citizen, and a useful member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 

Jno. H. Geoghegan, Jr., is a farrrier, and lives in Nelson county. The 
youngest son, William S. Geoghegan, was also born at Hynes Station, 
and resided with his father until his death, and then with his excellent 

129 



mother until her death, in the year i860. Soon after this he became 
an assistant in the store of his brother, Robert D. Geoghegan. Billy 
is a good worker; has a fine flow of spirits; and as to his age I need 
not say, as he is a single man, and, from all appearances, is likely to 
remain so. 

CHAPTER XXXIV 

Jacob Vanmeter, Sr., was my grandfather. He, with his family, 
emigrated from Monongahala (called by the old folks "Monongahale,") 
in 1779, landing at the falls of the Ohio that fall, and in the year 1780 
came to Severn Valley and settled on the farm now owned by George 
W. Strickler, two miles from Elizabethtown, on Valley Creek, at 
the mouth of Billy's Creek, on which last-named creek he built a grist 
mill for corn and wheat ; and although there remains at this day not 
a vestige of that mill, yet I ought to know where it stood, as my father 
carried on a one-horse distillery, and when I was about eight years old 
it was my daily business (Sunday excepted) to go with a bag of corn 
three times a day. My grandfather continued to reside there until 
his death, which occurred on the i6th day of November, 1798. He was 
in the original constitution of Severn's Valley Baptist Church on the 
17th day of June, 1781. His wife (my grandmother), his son, Jacob, 
and his negro man, Bambo, were also members. 

At his death he left a large family, all grown. It is now nearly 
seventy-two years since his death, and, like the old patriot Jacob, his 
descendants have multiplied like a fruitful vine that ran over the wall, 
for they are scattered East, West, North and South, and may be found 
in every State and territory in the Union, and from the least calculation 
that can be made they now amount to at least 3,000 souls. And that will 
not appear so surprising when you are informed that one out of his 
numerous grandsons had his thirtieth child born the night of his death. 
But that was over the average of the family, as the number of the most 
of his descendants to each family ran on an average from nine to eleven 
children, but frequently exceeded those numbers. My mother had 
eleven. 

My grandfather w^as buried on his own farm, I was present at his 
interment, being then three years and three months old, and have a 
distinct recollection of the occasion. His son Jacob procured a sand 

130 



rock and cut a tombstone, which is yet in good state of preservation, 
and every letter distinct at this day. On the 5th day of February, 1849, 
I visited the grave, having a httle grandson with me, and pointed out 
to him (as one of the fifth generation) the spot that contained the re- 
mains of his great, great grandfather. And as the inscription itself 
on the stone is a piece of antiquity, particularly as to its orthography, 
I will here give something like a facsimile of it: 

"HERE LIZES 

THE BODY OF 

JACOB VANMATER 

DIED IN THE 76 

YARE OF HIS AGE 

NOVEMBER THE 16 

1798" 

The spelling is rather of the normal style, and is an honest attempt to 

carry out the sound. Thus the word year is spelt YARE, containing all 

the proper letters of the word, but misplaced ; but the sound as spelt 

in the epitaph is precisely as he always pronounced it for nearly ninety 

years. Therefore, let no man pretend to criticise it or alter it. It is 

a jewel to me; so all mankind let it alone. It is the honest home-spun 

epitaph of a good man and Christian who braved all the perils and 

dangers of his day honorable, kind, hospitable and generous, and truly 

a patriarch. 

Jacob Vanmeter, the second, was born in Berkley county, Virginia, 
October 4, 1762; became a member of the Baptist Church at eleven 
years of age. At nineteen years of age, say 1779-80, he came with his 
father to Kentucky and settled in the valley. 

And here I will remark that I am not writing for a religious paper, 
but it is impossible to write anything about Jacob Vanmeter the second 
without touching upon religion, I must be indulged, for although his 
life was one of industry, toil and thrift, yet it was all the time a life 
of religion. 

At the death of his father he inherited the old homestead. On the 
advent of the Geoghegan family he sold them his farm and settled at 
the folks of Otter Creek, where he built a large stone house and resided 
in it until late in life. When all his children had married and left him 
he then sold out, and with his wife, resided with his son Jolin until 

131 



he died. He was rather an extraordinary man, of true patriarchal 
stamp. He was always regarded as a firm pillar of the church, and 
during seventy-eight years of his membership he was never under 
church censure or discipline. He departed this life on the 12th day of 
December, 1850, in his eighty-ninth year, having been a member seventy- 
eight years, and forty-five of the time a Deacon, leaving thirteen chil- 
dren, the youngest upward of forty years of age. Out of his ten 
sons seven were Deacons in the Baptist Church. Three days before 
his death he led at the family altar of his -son John. His prayer was 
uttered with great fervency and was protracted beyond the usual 
length. At the close he had to be assisted from his knees. The family 
offered to put him to bed, but he would not permit, saying that he 
wanted to speak of the goodness of God ; and he sat in his chair 
he repeated hymn after hymn from Watts. The family remarked that 
they had never heard him repeat them before. He said that the Lord 
had strengthened his memory and brought to his mind hymns that he 
had learned sixty years before. Like Moses on Mount Pisgah, sight 
was strengthened to view the promised land. He had often prayed to 
be released from the pangs of death. A few minutes before his death 
he exclaimed, "the light ! the light !" His daughter-in-law, who was at 
his bed side, supposing that the light of the window disturbed him, 
offered to close the blinds. "O, no," said he, waving his hand, "the 
glory of God filled the house ; he has kept me under the hollow of his 
hand from a child." Then adjusting himself for burial, closed his 
mouth and eyes, crossing his arms, with his right hand upon his heart, 
without a struggle or a groan, and evidently without a pang, like a 
shock full ripe, was gathered to his father. Thus lived and thus died the 
last survivor of the old pioneers of the Church at Elizabethtown, a 
godly man and a shining light. 

Abraham W. Vanmeter, son of the last-named, Jacob, was born in 
Hardin county, two miles from Elizabethtown, April i, 1789. He 
resided in Hardin county up to the year 1831, when he removed to 
Tazwell county, Illinois, where, in 1866, he lost his faithful wife, who 
for sixty years had been a Christian helpmate in the true sense of 
the word. Shortly after the death of his wife he sold out and took 
up residence with his son, Edward A. Vanmeter, a merchant at Burling- 
ton, Iowa, and resided there in great peace and tranquility until his 

132 



death, on the nth day of November, 1868, in the eightieth year of his 
age. He embraced religion at an early age, and was a true pattern of 
Christian piety, and aided much in building up the church wherever 
he lived. He was the father-in-law of the Rev. Doctor Weston, an 
eminent preacher of the City of New York, and was the father of the 
Rev. Wm. C. Vanmeter, now of the same city, who is known nearly 
w^orld-wide for his labors in the Five Points in that city, and then in 
the Howard Mission, in another ward. He has been the most laborious 
and untiring man in gathering up little cast-ofT wanderers, snatching 
them from degradation and vice, and to the number of many hundreds 
procured genteel homes in the West, and mostly in Christian families ; 
others were taken care of in the city, clothed, fed and educated. 

W. V. Vanmeter, in furthering his plans of benevolence, has visited 
London and Paris and many cities in Europe. But the scene of his ardu- 
ous labors has been in the city of New York. A full account of his 
labors and the stirring scenes through which he passed would make a 
volume of thrilling interest. 

It would require a volume to give a history of all the Vanmeters, 
but the object of this history will not allow it. They constitute a 
tribe or nation to themselves, and this number must suffice for that 
family, and I hope that my friend and relation, Doctor Samuel Van- 
meter, of Charleston, Indiana, will not take exception to my not saying 
how he rose to fame and wealth in his profession; he can take care 
of himself. 

CHAPTER XXXV 

Among the remarkable men, who at an early date were citizens 
of Elizabethtown, might be named the late John Morris, Esq. He came 
to Elizabethtown about the year 181 2, when about twenty-three years 
of age, then an active, stout man. He was an Irishman by birth, and 
was an excellent hatter, and commenced as a journeyman of the 
late Hon. Horace Waide, who was also a hatter, and at that period, was 
an assistant Judge of the Hardin Circuit Court. At the death of 
Judge Waide, Morris commenced a shop on his own account. He was 
an industrious honest man, and prided himself on being able to make 
a hat that would last a careful man four or five years. 

In those days Sunday hats were not worn every day, and some hats 

133 



of that description would be kept on hand in tolerable credit for ten 
years. The fashions did not change so often as they do now-days; / 
they were the bell-crown style, very high, and contained as much ma- 
terial as is now used in three, and a man could put in the crown two 
dozen apples, and a half dozen eggs and walk ahead without sus- 
picion of a cargo aloft. This fashion was found convenient to boys 
who visited orchards or hens' nests. Morris was a generous, social man, 
but the Irish blood which predominated in his veins, made him a quick, 
high-tempered man, and in his youthful days he frequently broke over 
bounds. He was raised in a Presbyterian family in Cincinnati, and al- 
though wicked, was taught to hold in high reverence preachers of the 
gospel, and to pay due respect to religious services. As a striking in- 
stance of his habits, by some means a coolness existed between him and 
the Rev. George L. Rogers, a Methodist preacher, so that they were not 
on speaking terms. His shop was diagonally across the street from 
Rogers, who was also a wheelwright and turner. While Morris was 
working a hat in the kettle, preparatory to blocking, some man at the 
time was in front of the preacher's door, abusing and cursing him in 
a violent manner. This attracting Morris' attention he stepped to the 
door and in a very decided manner informed the man, that if he had 
his hat out of the kettle he would thrash him for cursing the preacher. 
The man replied that he would wait on him and see who could whip. 
Morris, in a short time, got his hat out, and stepped into the street with 
his sleeves already rolled up ; they engaged in a fight and Morris chas- 
tised him by terrible blows and dexterous kicking, until the fellow was 
com.pletely subdued, and then told to go his way and mind how he 
cursed a preacher again. 

A few years after this Morris married a Miss MoUie Larue, by 
whom he raised a family of children ; and they lived together in great 
comfort. One of his sons, William L. Morris, studied and practiced 
law, but afterwards was an able Baptist preacher. Morris being a 
man of high integrity was appointed a Justice of the Peace, and then 
Sheriff of the county, and finally elected County Judge. He proved 
to be a man of fine business habits, and was called upon to act as 
guardian, administrator and executor of more estates than any other 
man in the county, all of which he closed to a cent. When he took 
up an opinion upon any subject, it was next thing to an impossibility 

13+ 



to move him from it, and the argument of lawyers before him had 
very little weight. On the trial of some case before him, he had 
listened with impatience and disgust at the speaking of three lawyers. 
Young Owen Thomas, the attorney who had the conclusion, arose to 
speak, when the Judge said, "See here, Owen, you may speak if you 
like, but I tell you my mind is made up." He said his aim was always 
for justice and the law ought always to bend to justice. 

On one occasion, a man was tried before him for stealing a colt — 
a witness for the defendant was evidently swearing to downright 
falsehoods, until the Judge losing all patience said, "See here, my 
good fellow, you are swearing to a pack of lies — stop right there, and 
begin on a new platform and tell the truth, or I will leave this bench 
and give you a thrashing." And thereupon, the fellow being alarmed, 
commenced again and told an entirely different tale, with something 
like the semblance of truth. "Now," says the Judge, "that looks a 
little more like the truth, but you are such a liar, that I have not full 
faith in your story yet, and I will guess at the matter myself." 

Oil another occasion, a party in the country was out on a coon and 
opossum hunt, and got on a general drunk, and late in the night laid 
down in the woods and slept until day. On awaking at daylight, one 
of the party saw his coffee pot in the ring and asked how it got there. 
One of the party, a negro man, answered that he had brought the 
whisky out in it. The owner of the coffee pot went to Squire Morris, 
and took out a warrant against the negro for stealing his coft'ee pot. 
The whole party were arrayed before the Squire, and he patiently 
listened to all their tales, after which he arose from his seat and re- 
marked that from their own showing they were all a low, dirty pack 
of good-for-nothing fellows, and now every one of you forthwith 
leave my ofifice, or I will kick every one of you out, which was in due 
time accordingly done. 

In 1832, Squire Morris joined the Baptist church, and after this he 
deserved great credit for the command over his temper ; made a useful 
member up to his death — he was the most earnest man in his profes- 
sion — knew no guile, but was truly a matter of fact man, as well in 
the church as in public life — he was liberal in his contributions and 
his house was the preacher's home. He married the second time — 
his last wife was of the Edwards family — was the widow of Isaac 

135 



Adair, and the first and last wife, added much to his domestic com- 
forts, and they always met his friends in a pleasant hospitable manner. 
His second wife also died before him. He was born on the 27th day 
of March, 1789, and died on the 6th day of March, 1865, and his 
.death was a serious loss to the town and church. 

Rev. John Pirtle was born in Berkley county, Virginia, on the 14th 
day of November, 1772 ; was married to Amelia Fitzpatrick, a native 
of Hampshire county. He determined at once to come to Kentucky. 
Here I will take the liberty of quoting a paragraph from Redford's 
History of Methodism in Kentucky. 

"In those days it was the habit of persons who intended coming 
to this country to rendezvous for more than fifty miles around, at 
some place appointed, and travel in company with arms in their hands. 
Mr. Pirtle and his wife, both young and recently married, had come 
to one of these points of meeting, and found they had mistaken the 
day — that the company had gone two days before. But as they had 
determined to come to Kentucky, and had received the blessing of 
their friends at the home they had wept for at parting, they resolved 
that they would not go back, they would come to Kentucky, and 
accordingly he with his rifle on his shoulder, on one horse with a 
pack under him, and his wife on another horse with a pack under 
her, traversed the solitary wilderness, and crossed the mountains 
alone ; not on the old wilderness road, but on the old wilderness path, 
till they came to Crab Orchard. Then every rustle of the leaves or 
crack of a stick in the deep woods, might well have been taken for 
the whereabouts of the prowling savage. 

He settled in Washington county, Kentucky, and in the year 1799 
removed to Elizabethtown, where he taught a school a short time, and 
acted as deputy clerk for Major Ben. Helm. 

I was then quite young, and had an idea that it was the duty of 
every school master to slash every boy he met, and as I have pre- 
viously remarked, always passed in double quick on the other side of 
the street. 

Mr. Pirtle removed back to Washington county in 1802. In the year 
1809 he connected himself with the Methodist Episcopal church, and 
became a powerful preacher. He was a man of natural eloquence, 
and of impressive personal appearance. And the celebrated Barnabas 

136 



McHenry said that he had the best voice he ever heard, and the late 
Rev. Marcus Lindsay, who was himself an able divine, in preaching 
his funeral after his (Pirtle's) death in 1826, said he was of the 
clearest intellect and strongest mind he had ever known. 

He was a man of expansive and vigorous mind — well trained and 
methodical. He had remarkable talents in mathematics and especially 
delighted in astronomy, and so profound was his knowledge of that 
abstruse science, that he could make his calculations in it as easily 
and rapidly (says his son, Judge Firtle), as he could in arithmetic. 

After settling in Washington county the second time, says Mr. 
Redford, he raised a large family of children, all of whom except one 
became members of the Methodist church. 

CHAPTER XXXVI 

In my last number I spoke considerably at length of that remark- 
able man, John Firtle. When he removed to this town, his son, the 
Hon. Henry Firtle, was a small babe, and as he was once an infant 
citizen of our town, I take the liberty of saying a few words about 
him. He was born in Washington county, Kentucky, on the 5th day 
of November, 1798, and was carried in his mother's arms to Elizabeth- 
town in 1799. When he approached manhood he studied law under the 
Hon. John Rowan, at Federal Hill, Bardstown, Ky., commenced the 
practice of law at Hartford, Ohio county, and soon after removed to 
Louisville. After becoming established, he was appointed Judge of 
the Circuit Court and General Court, and held that office from October. 
1826, to January 2, 1832, when he resigned. Again, 1846, he was ap- 
pointed Circuit Judge, but held the office only one term, and resigned. 
Gov. Crittenden then appointed him Chancellor of the Louisville Chan- 
cery Court in March, 1850. He was then elected under the new Con- 
stitution, and held the place until 1856, was re-elected in 1862, and held 
this office until 1868. All the time he was Judge or Chancellor he 
devoted to the practice of law. He was a State Senator from 1840 to 
1843, being the only political office he ever held. 

In 1846 the law department of the University of Louisville was or- 
ganized, and he was made Professor. He still occupies the chair, and 

137 



lectures twice a week to two classes, and in that situation he takes 
great pleasure. 

After this history it will be needless to say that Judge Pirtle is a 
profound lawyer and able jurist, and through a course of many 
years, has deservedly held the high esteem and confidence of the 
community, well befitting the descendant of the Rev. John Pirtle, 
whose advent into Kentucky with his heroic young wife entitled them 
to a niche in the temple of fame second only to the immortal Daniel 
Boone. 

And as the old house in which he resided in Elizabethtown has be- 
come classic, I must be indulged in giving a short history of it and its 
occupants. The lot containing one half an acre was originally pur- 
chased of the trustees on the loth day of September, 1798, at the 
Statutory price of an oath, five shillings. Rawlings hastily put up a 
hewed log house, about twenty feet square, without a chimney, the 
timber of which, or most of it, being cut down upon the lot. That 
was done in 1798-99. In 1799 John Pirtle rented it and moved into 
it, and lived in it until 1802. After passing through several hands, on 
the 8th day of March, 1804, it fell into the hands of Samuel Patton, 
who married a daughter of Major Wells, of Revolutionary fame. Pat- 
ton lived in it until 1806, during which time he put up a brick chimney, 
and on the back of the chimney inscribed these letters: "S. P. 1806," 
and that chimney to this day fixes the locality of the alley running by it. 

In 1806 Patton sold it to John Davidson, from Virginia. He resided 
in it until 1809, and during that time weatherboarded the house and 
hid the "S. P. 1806" ; so that it did not see the light of day for sixty- 
four years, and then only looked out for one day, and was shut up again. 
In 1809 John Davidson sold it to his brother Thomas, who only lived 
in it one year; and in 1810 he sold it to John Eccles, Esq., who was 
originally a shoe and boot maker, but was then a lawyer of some note. 

Eccles resided in it until the 19th day of February, 1814, when he sold 
it to Gen. Dufif Green, who resided in it until 181 7. He has since be- 
come known world-wide. 

In 181 7 Gen. Green sold the premises to Elias Rector, of Missouri. 
Rector never lived in it, but sold the property to the late Hon. Benjamin 
Chapeze, a distinguished lawyer. He resided in the house until the 14th 
of April, 1828, when he sold it to Thomas J. Walker, a soldier, who 

138 



resided in it until shortly before his death. The house has had numer- 
ous tenants in it of short periods. One of them was Montgomery 
Mason, a hatter. On the 17th day of June, 1835, the present occupant, 
Dr. Harvey Slaughter, purchased the property of Wathen's executors, 
and resided in it ever since. The Doctor at various periods, made sev- 
eral additions and alterations but it still had an antiquated appearance, 
by no means suited to the Doctor's taste, he being an eminent physician, 
a literary man, and fond of the poets; but still his house was on a par 
with those of most of his neighbors, and he philosophically submitted 
to its rural appearance, with the majestic locusts before the house, 
\\hich embosomed the building and lent something of majesty and 
the grandeur of the feudal times of old England and sometimes pallisad- 
ing or entrenching himself behind the poet who sang: 

"I knew by the smoke that so gracefully curled 
Above the green elms, that a cottage was near ; 
And I said, if there's peace to be found in the world, 
The heart that is humble, might hope for it here." 
So it stood for thirty-five years. But it so turned out, in the course 
of human events, that in August, 1869, a great portion of the town was 
burned down ; and upon the ruins sprang up, like a Phoenix, new and 
tasty houses, and many houses, such as Dr. Warfield's, Dr. Short's, 
Hewitt's, Prof. Heagan's, Judge Gofer's, Capt. Bell's and Commissioner 
Gunter's, in addition to the fine business houses in the popular part of 
the town. 

The Doctor looked out upon this, it became the last feather on the 
camel's back, and he determined to stand it no longer, and called in 
the aid of Architect Turner, and off came the old weather-boarding. 
And such a remodeling and demolishing of tlie old place, and such a 
metamorphosing has not been witnessed in the town for seventy-eight 
years. The tall windows, weighted sashes, magnificent doors, splendid 
Venetian blinds, chaste and heavy cornices — the whole matter rear^ 
ranged, renovated and renewed — walls painted a dazzling white, window 
blinds a heavy drab, sash cherry color, with French glass ; nothing gaudy 
about it, but presents a sober, chaste and classic appearance. 

The Doctor still retains and protects the venerable trees before his 
domicile with all the sacred care that the ancient Druids did their 
grand old oaks in their mountain fastnesses. 

139 



Thomas W. Nicholson, a schoolmaster, came to Elizabethtown about 
the year 1805. He wrote a splendid hand, was a tolerable English 
scholar, a strict disciplinarian, and understood the use of the birch to 
perfection. He was rather a dandy for that day, and wore a fine blue 
cloth coat and rufifled shirt, and buckskin pants of elaborate finish. 
These pants he regularly covered with yellow ochre on every Saturday, 
and usually spent half the day drying them, and he considered them the 
height of gentility. He preserved strict order in his school ; and as it 
was the custom in those days for boys to walk several miles to school, 
they brought their dinner in baskets, which were all put on a bench, and 
each boy or girl stood in front of his or her basket. Thomas Kennedy, 
being the largest, stood at the head, and repeated with solemn face, 
these words: "Sanctify, we beseech Thee, O Lord, these creatures to 
our use, and ourselves to Thy service, for Christ's sake. Amen." 

Nicholson brought with him a fine black horse. At the end of nine 
months a report reached the town that the horse had not been fairly 
obtained. This report coming to Nicholson's ears, he departed one 
night with his horse, leaving a trunk of clothing and his tuition fees 
uncollected, and has never been heard of since, now 65 years. 

Samuel Stevenson was about the next in order of succession of teach- 
ers in Elizabethtown. He came about the year 1806, and, on the old 
system, was a good teacher. He taught about two years quite a large 
school. His course was mostly spelling, reading, writing, arithmetic, 
English grammar and geography. He, however, had a class of seven 
in Latin. I was one of that class ; and although I passed inspection 
in parsing lessons, yet it was all mechanical, and I do not now profess 
to know anything about it ; and I feel confident that the same class, 
under the improved method of instruction, would have acquired a bet- 
ter knowledge of the language in three months at Lynnland Institute or 
Cecilia College, than our class did in two years. 

Mr. Stevenson next took up tavern-keeping and then merchandising, 
and I think served one year in the Legislature. He was a quiet, well 
conducted gentleman, and a worthy man. He lived in our town per- 
haps ten years or more. After he left I lost sight of him. 

CHAPTER XXXVn 

General Dufif Green was an extraordinary man, and I very much 

140 



regret that my sketch of him must be very imperfect, and cannot expect 
to do justice to him; he was an aspiring, ambitious man, and changed 
his residence so often, and occupied such a conspicuous position in 
this world that I am not able to trace him. 

He was the son of William Green, then of Cumberland county, Ky. 
When quite a young man, perhaps not fully of age in the year 1811, 
he came to Elizabethtown and made up a fine school — and perhaps fol- 
lowed that occupation for about two years — he was a strict disci- 
plinarian, and in accordance with the custom of that day, made free 
use of the rod. He was very decisive in his measures, and used no 
partiality between the children of the rich and the poor — order and 
discipline at all hazard had to be observed. John L. Helm, the future 
Governor and distinguished politician was one of his pupils, and on 
one occasion did violate, or was supposed to violate some of the rules 
of the school. Mr. Green called him up, and young Helm having 
already developed some of the firmness which marked his future 
course, refused to apologize or explain — the consequence was a severe 
flagellation which was borne withoiit flinching, and was the more 
severe on account of what Green took to be stubbornness. 

Helm bore it in mind and determined in his own mind if he ever 
reached manhood to return the flogging with interest. It was many 
years after Green left before they met again. Then matters had 
changed ; Green was high in the world, and the Governor had also 
attracted much public attention. When they did meet Green was the 
first to recognize his old pupil, and met him with such open armed 
cordiality that it was an affectionate embrace instead of a fight. At 
the time Green came to Elizabethtown I was a boy writing in the 
clerk's office under Major Ben Helm. Green boarded with the Major 
and slept with me in the office. I was then in very straightened cir- 
cumstances, enjoyed the extravagant salary of forty dollars per year 
and board, but as I was a deputy clerk, I felt some pride in the posi- 
tion. But my means were so limited I was ill prepared for any- 
thing but a very scanty wardrobe. But by some means I managed to 
get a coat of cotton goods ratlier fancy colored. My father had an 
orchard near the office. Rather imprudently I visited the orchard 
with my new coat on, climbed up the tree and filled my pockets full. 

141 



and jumping out, the pockets caught m the forks, splitting my coat, 
and yet not to the ground — hearing the noise of the tearing, I sup- 
posed it was a rattle-snake and clapping my feet to the tree I made 
a desperate effort which severed my coat at the waist, leaving the 
apples and tail of my coat in the tree. I soon found that I was ruined, 
and returned to the office in a sorrowful state of mind. Green soon 
came in and discovered my distress, kindly offered to sell me one 
of his cotton coats at a nominal price. 

Now, Green was nearly two feet taller than I was, but I donned 
the coat, which as a matter of course gave me the ludicrous appear- 
ance of a boy going to mill with his daddy's coat on. At supper time 
Mrs. Helm discovered the unfitness of things, and changed a coat 
she was making for uncle Ben and gave it to me. I considered my- 
self a made man. 

Shortly after this, date not recollected, Green volunteered in a com- 
pany called the Yellow Jackets, commanded by Gov. W. P. Duvall, 
and went on a campaign up the Wabash against the Indians. In an 
Indian fight Green showed great gallantry and the horse he rode was 
shot in the neck. Green soon after married Miss Lucretia Edwards, 
sister of Gov. Ninian Edwards. She was a very handsome and admir- 
able woman. 

Shortly after he formed a partnership in the mercantile business with 
Major Ben Helm. Green soon received an appointment as surveyor 
of public lands in Missouri, and while in Missouri he was commissioned 
a general in the militia. 

The General sold out in 1817 and went to Washington City, and soon 
became a favorite of General Jackson, President of the United States, 
and it was generally believed that he was the confidential adviser of the 
President and thus in an indirect mariner exercised an influence in the 
Government. He was afterward elected to Congress and shared a good 
deal of Government patronage. During his residence at Washington, 
he visited London, and on his own hook, had an interview with a 
portion of the British Cabinet and suggested many items of interna- 
tional policy, but whether they were adopted by the Government I 
never learned. He is now at an advanced age if living. I have not 
heard of him for two years past. 

142 



DANIEL WAIDE 

was a resident of Elizabethtown about the same time that General 
Duff Green resided here. He kept a tavern at the same old stand where 
the Lion was the sign. He commenced in a log house ; after some time 
he put up the center part of the brick building which now constitutes 
the Eagle House. He married one of the daughters of the late Alex- 
ander McDougal and saying that is sufficient proof that the table was 

first rate. He died about the year , and it was then considered a 

great loss to the town. 

After his death Samuel Martin, Esq., purchased the house, and kept 
a hotel in good style. Martin was a natural quiz, and would try his 
hand upon any guest at his house even if he was the President. He is 
a Justice of the Peace. At the time a man was confined in jail for 
stealing — an acquaintance of the prisoner came to visit him and got up 
into the window opposite the prisoner's room, and as it afterward 
appeared, had implements for the prisoner to saw himself out. The 
jailer being absent, his wife requested the man to go away — he refused 
— she sent for Squire Martin — he came and took the man by the neck 
and pulled him down and led him to his office. He could not make out 
an offense for merely sitting in the window, but decided that he was a 
man of bad behavior in not obeying the lady, required him to give 
security for his good behavior, and failing to give it, he committed him 
to jail with the thief, but forgot to search him ; so the next night the 
prisoner and his friend both walked out of the jail and were never 
retaken. ]\Iartin afterward became Sheriff" by seniority under the old 
Constitution. 

John Shackleford at one time kept the same house in good style, 
and afterward removed to Palmyra, in Missouri, where he kept a good 
hotel until his death. 

Philemon Bibb also kept the Eagle House in first-rate style. Bibb 
and his energetic lady seemed to be natural hotel keepers. At West 
Point he held forth for a season and then removed to Louisville and 
kept the old Exchange on Sixth street for years, and no house in 
Louisville, for a time, surpassed it for a fine table. In those days 
Bibb was a very polite, obliging landlord. 

143 



LLOYD HARRIS 

also kept a hotel in this town and kept it well — was an active, energetic 
man. He was a moving man — lived in Hodgenville for a time and 
afterward removed to Louisville, where he kept at least half a dozen 
hotels and boarding houses, and lives there now. I cannot tell what 
he will go at next, for although he is growing in years and heads a 
large family, he will not and cannot be idle. 

In my next I expect to resume a history of school teachers. 

CHAPTER XXXVni 

ROBERT HEWITT, 

a teacher, came to Elizabethtown in 1834. He was induced to come 
to this place by the late John Morris, who remained his fast 
friend for life. Mr. Hewitt was born in Bedford county, Vir- 
ginia, on the 1st day of July, 1803, and came to Kentucky soon after 
his majority. His first teaching was at Hodgenville, LaRue county. 
As soon as he removed to Elizabethtown he took charge of the Hardin 
Academy and continued in charge of it until his death, February 13, 
1850, and during that period of sixteen years he turned out more good 
scholars than any teacher before or after him. He was a ripe scholar 
and, according to the custom of that day, was compelled to use the rod 
liberally, as he had under his tuition a considerable number of hard 
cases, and none but a man of his determination could have governed 
them. He was remarkable for his modesty and unobtrusiveness — so 
much so that among strangers he would have passed for half his worth. 
But with those who knew him he was held in high esteem for his 
moral worth and integrity. 

He was a man of clear intellect and judgment, and with intimate 
friends fluent in conversation and thoroughly posted on all subjects 
interesting to sensible men. He was of such retiring habits that he 
rarely sought company outside of his books, but company sought him 
for the purpose of enjoying the rich treat his conversation offered. 
He married a daughter of the late Rev. Lewis Chastain, a Methodist 
preacher of considerable note, who hailed from the Old Dominion, Vir- 
ginia, the mother of States. 

144 



His clear judgment was so relied upon that on the occasion of a 
debate between the Revs. Fisher and Clark he was selected to preside 
as one of the moderators. He never held or sought any political office. 
He raised and educated several sons, and at his death left an excellent, 
amiable and intelligent widow, who still resides (1870) in Elizabeth- 
town. 

THE HEWITT SONS 

Lafayette Hewitt, the eldest son, at the age of 18, after the death 
of his father, was placed by the trustees at the head of the Hardin 
Academy, which position he occupied with great credit for two years, 
when he established an independent school, which he taught until 1857. 
His health then became so delicate that he could not bear the confine- 
ment and went South. In 1859 he received from General Joseph Holt, 
postmaster general, an appointment in that department, and was as- 
signed the superintendence of the Dead Letter Office, and resigned that 
position on President Lincoln's coming into power. And the war 
breaking out, he espoused the cause of the Confederacy and went to 
Richmond to engage in the war. The postmaster general of the Con- 
federate States, learning his whereabouts, immediately telegraphed him 
to come on to Montgomery to aid in getting the postoffice department 
in working order. Accordingly he went and received the necessary ap- 
pointment and went to work in earnest. When the department got into 
successful operation he resigned his position in order to take part in 
the arduous duties of the field. 

On the first day of December, 1861, he received the appointment 
of adjutant general. A full detail of his miUtary services is given in the 
"History of the First Kentucky Brigade," by Ed. Poter Thompson. 
That history shows that labors may be performed by a man of slender 
frame and feeble health when combined with a strong will and de- 
termined purpose, sustained by a brave heart. 

At the end of the war he returned to Elizabethtown, May 18, 1865. 
He was offered the position of principal of the Elizabethtown Female 
Academy, of which he took charge in September, and was thus engaged 
for five months. He then commenced the practice of law in the courts 
of Hardin. 

145 



Shortly after Governor Stevenson came into office, in October, 1867, 
he was appointed quartermaster general of the State of Kentucky, 
which position he still holds. 

The duties devolving upon the Captain were onerous and highly 
responsible, involving the settlement of four millions of dollars between 
the Commonwealth and the General Government, and he has acquitted 
himself in a manner highly satisfactory. 

VIRGIL HEWITT, 

familiarly called Day Hewitt, was another son of Robert Hewitt. He 
also was a well-educated young man, of singularly modest habits, and 
was withal so quiet and easy in his deportment that no one would have 
suspected him of wishing to engage in the toils and dangers of war. 
But his sympathies- were decidedly with the Confederacy, and although 
of delicate and slender frame, he buckled on his armor and went out as 
quietly as if he were going into a company of ladies. 

He did not go shouting and singing as some of the soldiers in the 
war of 181 1 did. For some of them sang a song not quite up to dog- 
gerel — it hardly amounted to PUP EREL. It ran thus : 

"Come all ye brave Kentuckians, 
I'd have you for to know, 
That for to fight the enemee 
I'm going for to go. 

And if you're freezin' for a fight, 

Come go along with me. 
We'll show them for a thing or two 

In front the enemee. 

If you ask where we are goin', 

I'll tell you what it means — 
We're goin' on a big flatboat 

Way down to New Orleans. 

And there we'll meet proud red coats. 

All heeled with golden spurs. 
Though they belch big guns and bombs 

We'll thrash the Britishers." 
146 



Not so with Day. He went off decently, but he had fight in him. 
During the first year of the war he served with Gen. Ben Hardin Helm, 
and was attached to Company H in the Sixth Regiment. September 
i8, 1862, he was elected second lieutenant; January 12, 1863, he was 
promoted to first lieutenant, and October, 1863, he was made adjutant 
of the Sixth Regiment. 

He fought at Murfreesboro, Jackson, Chickamauga, Rocky Face 
Ridge, Resaca and Dallas. He was wounded at Dallas, but recovered 
in time to take part in the battle at Intrenchment Creek, at which place 
he was so severely wounded as to be disabled from further service 
during the war. At the return of peace he came home, determined 
to be peaceable, and was elected county clerk of Hardin county for 
four years, having served in a clerk's office before the war. He made 
so good an officer that he has just been elected for a second term of 
four years. 

HANNIBAL HEWITT, 

the second son, was also a well educated man and partook much of the 
modesty of the family, and was a popular young man. He was post- 
master at one time and occasionally taught school. He has been out of 
my sight more than the other boys, and I am not prepared to speak 
fully of him. 

FOX HEWITT, 

the fourth and youngest son, was also educated in the school of his 
father and his brother, Fayette Hewitt. 

After Fayette went to Washington, Fox followed him. About the 
1st of December, i860, he was appointed clerk in the Treasury Depart- 
ment, which office he resigned in March, 1861, when President Lincoln 
came into office. He then went to Richmond, Virginia, and was ap- 
pointed clerk in the Treasury Department of the Confederacy; this was 
in November, 1861. 

In May, 1863, he joined the 25th Virginia battalion, and until the 
close of the war was in service with this battalion on the fortifications 
of Richmond. After the war he returned home and has acted assistant 
clerk of the Hardin County Court ever since that office was held by 
Virgil, his brother. 

147 



Thus ends a very imperfect sketch of the family of that excellent 
man, the late Robert Hewitt, who was one of the bright ornaments of 
Elizabethtown. 

CHAPTER XXXIX 

THOMAS JOHNSON, ESQ., 

was born in Rockbridge county, Virginia, and came to Elizabethtown 
about the year 1824. He commenced the practice of law, and finding 
it not sufficiently remunerative, got the appointment of principal of the 
Hardin Academy, which position he held for several years. He was 
an ardent man in temperament, kind and social in his intercourse, as 
quick as powder to resent an insult, pure in morals, but subject to low 
spirits. He related to me an instance of his moody habits. 

One evening in winter he was walking out to relieve ennui and a 
heavy spirit, warmly clad, but as miserable as he could be — that is, 
completely in the blues. He met a negro on the road, barefooted and 
miserably clad. The negro was singing a corn song, as gay as a lark. 
Johnson said he was tempted to knock the negro over for pure envy, 
and he philosophized upon the matter. If that negro, barefooted and 
nearly naked, was happy, why should he, well clad and in a profitable 
business, indulge in such moody reflections? It cured him for that 
time. Johnson married a very estimable lady and removed to Texas, 
where he occupied a prominent position for years. Whether living 
or dead I cannot tell, as I lost sight of him. 

REV. ROBERT L. THURMAN 

was also a teacher in Elizabethtown. He was born November 19, 181 5, 
at a point half way between Springfield and Lebanon. In the year 
1819 or 1820 his father, the Rev. David Thurman, removed to Hardin 
county and settled at Nolynn, now LaRue county. R. L. Thurman was 
brought up to hard farm work — that is, while he was a boy — going to 
school in the winter season. He received his early education under the 
late Robert Hewitt, first in the country, and then followed Mr. Hewitt 
to Elizabethtown and was under his tuition five or six years. He then 
went to Georgetown College in the spring of 1839 and continued there 
three and a half years, and graduated in June, 1842, with the highest 
honors of that excellent institution. 

148 



At the age of seventeen he professed reUgion and united with the 
Baptist Church at Nolynn. 

On the 25th day of July, 1843, ^^ was ordained to the ministry, and 
was pastor of Severn's Valley Church, located at Elizabethtown. The 
Presbytery was composed of Elders Colmore Lovelace, Thomas J. 
Fisher, A. D. Sears and A. W. LaRue. He continued as the faithful 
pastor of that church for six years, and on the day after his ordination 
he baptized two candidates, rather a rare occurrence. During his min- 
istry the church had a very pleasant revival. He was assisted by Dr. 
Gardner, then a young preacher and now located in Russellville as pro- 
fessor of theology at Bethel College. The last three and a half years 
of his pastorate he had charge of the Elizabethtown Female Seminary. 
For some time he had the Rev. Samuel Williams, pastor of the Pres- 
byterian Church, as his partner, and after Mr. Thurman resigned the 
same school was continued by Mr. Williams for about nine months. 

Mr. Thurman was married in October, 1845, to a daughter of Mr. 
Freeman, near Frankfort, and is now (1870) a grandfather. He 
removed to Louisville, and with Elders A. W. LaRue, Thomas J. 
Fisher and John L. W^aller, the latter as senior editor, in 1852 took 
charge of the Western Recorder. 

In 1 85 1 he was appointed agent for Georgetown College and con- 
tinued in that employment for four years. He then was appointed 
State agent for the Board of Foreign Missions and has been in that 
service ever since. 

He is a man of untiring energy and has performed Herculean labors 
and done much in building up Georgetown College and in sustaining the 
Foreign Mission enterprises. He resided in Franklin county many years 
and then removed to Bardstown, where he now resides. His whole 
course so far has been without a blemish, and he may emphatically be 
termed a Christian gentleman of the first water. 

Many other teachers of less note have taught in EHzabethtown. 

REV. J. W. HEAGEN, 

a Presbyterian preacher, was and is now a teacher. 

Mr. Heagen was born in Gettysburg-, Virginia. He received his 
education in W^estern Pennsylvania, and removed with his w'ife in 
1858 to Daviess county, from thence to Breckinridge county, from 

149 



thence to Bullitt county, and in 1867 he removed to Elizabethtown and 
took charge of the Female Seminary, which afterward became a mixed 
school under the title of Hambleton College. 

He has proved to be an excellent and successful teacher, a strict dis- 
ciplinarian, and advances his pupils rapidly. He is a man of great 
decision, and but very few cases of disorder have occurred in his college. 
He has in one Or two years had as high as 120 pupils and has averaged 
100 or more annually. His success has determined him to be a perma- 
nent citizen, and as an evidence of that he purchased ground and erected 
a large and handsome house in town, capable of accommodating many 
boarders. 

REV. SAMUEL WILLIAMS 

I have run a little ahead of my history and will drop back to the 
Rev. Samuel Williams, a Presbyterian preacher, who also was a teacher 
for a limited period. He was born in Lincoln county, Kentucky, and 
was principally educated at Center College, Danville, Kentucky, where 
he graduated. 

He removed to Elizabethtown and became pastor of the Presby- 
terian Church in 1845, ^"d retained that position until 1846, when he 
resigned. 

He was the partner of Rev. R. L. Thurman, in charge of the Female 
Academy, and after the resignation of Mr. Thurman he continued the 
school alone for nine months and was considered an excellent teacher. 
During the most of the time of his pastorate he held services in his 
church every Sabbath, and finding his salary inadequate to a comforta- 
ble support, he bought a farm adjoining Elizabethtown and became 
rather a model farmer and had a taste for the cultivation of fruits. 

During the war it was a trying time on churches and church services, 
yet he kept up the services regularly except for a short time, when the 
churches were all taken by the military and soldiers quartered in them, 
and the sound of a church bell was not heard for some months. It was 
a gloomy time for Christians. During the time of the occupation of 
the Methodist, Presbyterian and Baptist churches, by the special request 
of the wife of the writer, a prayer meeting was appointed and held in 
the writer's house on every Thursday night by Mr. Williams and the 
Rev. Dr. W. W. Lambuth, a very worthy Methodist preacher, for some 
months. Their punctuality in attending and their devotions at these 

150 



prayer meetings were highly appreciated and have ever been held in 
kind remembrance by the family. 

Very few men have passed through twenty-five years of active 
duties and trying circumstances with a more blameless life and 
Christian-like deportment. 

CHAPTER XL 

DOCTORS 

As for the disciples of ^sculapius not one of them trod the soil of 
this town or neighborhood from the year 1780 until about 1800. It 
may be asked liow sick folks got along in the twenty years or more. 
In the first place men who lived a great deal in the open air, and got 
their meat from the forests and glens, tender venison, the juicy bear, 
the substantial buffalo, the delicate turkey, pheasant, partridge, squirrel, 
and in place of pork, the fat possum, and these all taken in the hunt, 
with the rifle and hunting dogs, and all this food sweetened by toil 
made men healthy and they rarely got sick. In these days if a man took 
a cold the remedy was to drink down a half pint or pint of bear's oil — 
the quantity depended upon the capacity of a man's stomach, then lay 
down before a log fire in the woods, wrapped up in his blanket and if 
it snowed three or four inches deep on him in the night it was all the 
better, and when he awoke in the morning and shook the snow off of 
his blanket as the lion would the dew drops from his mane, the man 
was well of his cold, and fully prepared to take up his rifle and renew 
the hunt. If a man was taken sick in his fort or cabin the women were 
the doctors. Then the Elecampaign and Comfrey and Ditny tea were 
the sovereign remedies successfully used, and occasionally the comb 
of a hornet's nest was scorched before the fire and a tea was made 
of it, and drank without scruple, and the patient was covered up in 
a blanket or buffalo rug, which produced a copious sweat and worked 
wonders. If the hornet's nest was not to be had, sage tea was used. 
But a good sweat was an indispensable thing. In case of measles, which 
did not hurt much in those days, all the patient had to do was to keep 
out of the wet, unless the case was more severe than usual. Then 
sheep-nannie tea was prescribed ; about a quart of that condiment 
swallowed down at night was certain to effect a cure. In case of the 

151 



bloody flux, very uncommon in those days, a sovereign remedy was 
used, and is to this day the best of all. It was a simple remedy and 
always successful, and for the benefit of the present generation I will 
record it in my history. 

RECIPE 

Take about two pounds of the inner bark of the white oak tree, taken 
ofif near the root on the north side, the bark there being the thickest 
and strongest ; put the bark in an iron vessel with a gallon of water, 
boil it down to a quart, then take out the bark and add a quart of new 
milk and a lump of sugar about the size of a duck egg, boil that down 
to a quart ; when cooled a little it is fit for use. 

DOSE 

Half a common teacupful, and every two hours after two large 
tablespoons ful, and continued until the pains in the rectum or lower 
bowel cease, then hold on. But if after that the pains should return, 
commence again with the same treatment. But the first course generally 
produces the desired efifect. Then let nature do her perfect work, and 
in a day or two the bleeding ulcers in the rectum would slough ofif and 
all pass off in the natural way, and the patient is well. Don't want 
to cleanse the bowels by putting calomel down the throat, for if you do 
unlock the liver and let down bile upon the bleeding ulcers then you 
might as well speak for your coffin. This course, in a practice of 
seventy years, always cured the disease if taken in time. 

It is true some of the old ladies were a little tinctured with a super- 
stitious notion that the bark had to be peeled upward and the water 
dipped upstream. But in the fullness of time that notion has been 
exploded. However, to do so did no harm. 

One of the earliest physicians who settled in our town was Dr. 
Ebenezer E. Goodletter, who exercised the healing art several years in 
this town, and then left for parts unknown to the writer. 

Then came Dr. Thomas Essex from England ; he settled in Elizabeth- 
town about the year 1809. He purchased property and was a resident 
for some years, and had a remarkably genteel family, and was doing a 
fine business until Dr. William Sulcer, a big fat Dutchman, came in 
the neighborhood and proclaimed himself to be the Dutch doctor, skilled 
in the Indian practice. He was a very illiterate man, but had a good 

152 



share of common sense by nature, and he took Hke wildfire and swept 
everything in the way of practice before him, and made the natives 
beHeve that these college bred doctors were regular man killers. Dr. 
Essex's practice, of course, went down and he removed, if I remem- 
ber right, to Tennessee. 

It is an adage that "Every dog has his day," and it so happened 
that Sulcer had his day. 

About the year 1811 Doctor Daniel B. Potter, a regular graduate, 
came to Elizabethtown. On his arrival he soon heard of Sulcer's fame, 
and he lost no time in making the acquaintance of Dr. Sulcer, and man- 
aged to get in partnership with him. They rode and practiced together. 
Potter flattered Sulcer and gained his good will and confidence, and 
Sulcer puffed Doctor Potter as a none-such and the only college-bred 
doctor that was worth a snap in all the land. 

Those were the days of company musters and whenever a militia 
company was mustered in town Potter would get one or two large 
buckets of sweetened whisky and have the captain to parade his men 
before his shop, and let the whole company swig to their heart's con- 
tent. This practice in addition to Sulcer's puffing and blowing about 
Dr. Potter soon established Potter as the King-cure-all of all the pains, 
aches and diseases with which the human family was prone to be 
afflicted. Then practice was immense, and men and women came to 
the conclusion that it was necessary to get sick, in order to avail them- 
selves of his superior skill in the healing art. When firmly established 
he proposed a dissolution of the partnership. The consequence was 
that Sulcer went down like a falling star and suddenly faded away, and 
Dr. Potter kept the ground. Sulcer left in a short time after for a 
more congenial clime. 

Potter soon after married Miss Hackley, a lady of surpassing beauty, 
and was rapidly acquiring wealth, for he was in reality well skilled in 
his profession, but in 1814 he fell h. victim to an epidemic called the 
"cold plague." The writer sat up with him the night of his death, and 
helped to lay him out, and his death was justly considered a real loss 
to the community. His death left an opening which was filled by Dr. 
Richard A. Taylor, who enjoyed a fine practice for several years. He 
married a Miss Sally McGee, a very amiable lady, and after some 
years removed to Green county, and is now represented as a man of 

153 



considerable wealth and a deserving citizen. About the time of his 
removal Doctors John Churchill and Christopher L. Jones, commenced 
the practice in partnership. Dr. Churchill was a polished gentleman, 
and married a Miss Percefull, who lived but a short time after her 
marriage. He removed to Greensburg and married a Miss Akin. 
Some years after his health failed and he died. 

Dr. Jones removed to Harrodsburg and married a Miss Lucy May. 
She was a daughter of David May, a man of high respectability, and 
once the clerk of the Hardin Quarter Session Court. 

Dr. William S. Young then commenced the practice in this town. 
He was a native of Nelson county, Kentucky, studied medicine with 
Dr. Bemiss, of Bloomfield, and was a partner of his preceptor for 
several years. He settled in Elizabethtown in 1814, and stood deserv- 
edly high in his profession. He was a very modest, worthy gentleman, 
and the late Ben Tobin, Esq., once remarked of Dr. W. S. Young, that 
he was the most immaculate man he ever knew. He acquired a con- 
siderable estate, was elected to Congress in 1824, and was re-elected 
in 1826, and died much regretted in 1827. 

CHAPTER XLI 

DR. BRYAN R. YOUNG 

is a brother of the late Dr. W. S. Young, named in the last number. 
He was also born in Nelson county, Kentucky, where he was also 
educated. He came to EHzabethtown in 1818, and studied medicine 
with his brother ; after graduating with honor, he was partner in practice 
up to the time of his brother's death, in 1827, and then continued the 
practice alone. He was a ver>' successful practitioner, and had a large 
field to operate in, and is also a very skillful surgeon. The Doctor's 
skill in medicine and the healing art, and his moderate bills, made him 
very popular, and consequently in almost every part of the county 
can be found children and youths called by his name ; indeed, so 
numerous are they, that had the Doctor thought it a duty to bestow a 
suit of clothes on each name-sake, it would have been a strong pull at 
his purse-strings. In the year 1845 the Doctor was elected to Congress, 
and served two sessions ; and was also elected to the Legislature of 
Kentwcky in the year 1858-59, and in 1861-62 and 1863-64, in which 
various positions the Doctor acquitted himself with much credit. 

154 



The Doctor is also an enthusiastic pomologist and horticulturist, and 
purchased a farm on Muldraugh's Hill, in Hardin county. But he has 
lately retired from his farm, and again has taken up his residence in 
Elizabethtown, and continues his practice only in special cases. 

DOCTOR HARVEY SLAUGHTER 

born in Nelson county, on Cedar Creek, is the son of the late 
Judge Slaughter, who was one of the finest specimens of an 
old Virginia gentleman. He resided within four miles of Bardstown, a 
place justly celebrated for its educational institutions, and the home of 
some of the most eminent lawyers in Kentucky — Judge Rowan, Hon. 
Ben Hardin, Hon. Charles A. Wickliffe, Hon. Benj. Chapeze, Philip 
Quinton, Hon. James Guthrie, and the celebrated orator, John Hays, 
and many others. Dr. Slaughter received his early education in Bards- 
town, and graduated at Transylvania University, in Lexington. He 
tTien studied medicine in the same town, under the celebrated Dr. Burr 
Harrison. He made his first attempt at practice at Big Spring, in 1828. 
But by the persuasions of our late fellow -citizen, Horatio G. \\'inter- 
smith, he removed to Elizabethtown in the year 1829, and has remained 
here ever since and enjoyed a lucrative practice. It was the custom in 
this town when any man was given up by the resident doctors, to send to 
Bardstown for Dr. Harrison. He became tired of being sent for only to 
see a man die, and remarked publicly, that if Dr. Slaughter could not 
cure them, it was useless to send for him. 

The Doctor is a man of fine education and refinement, and eminent 
in his profession ; has a fine appreciation of the poets, and is a good 
public speaker. He has also for a few years been engaged in horti- 
culture, and can show as fine grapes and apples as any man in the 
State. In a few numbers back I have spoken of the Doctor's taste in 
improving his residence, rendered classic by the distinguished men who 
have occupied it since 1798. 

THOMAS S. CRUTCHER 

may be considered one of the oldest residents of Elizabethtown, now- 
living, except myself. He was born in Bardstown, Kentucky, on the 
28th day of August, 1798, just fourteen days after I was born in 
Elizabethtown. 

His father, the late IMajor James Crutcher, soon after came with his 



family to Elizabethtown, and up to the time of his death acted a 
prominent part as merchant, tavern-keeper, Justice of the Peace, Judge 
of the Quarter Session Court, trustee of the town, trustee of the 
Academy, and Representative and Senator in the Kentucky Legisla- 
ture. The same Thomas S. Crutcher of whom we now speak, received 
his early education in the same schools as myself and Thomas W. 
Nicholson, Rev. Ben Ogden, and Samuel Stevenson, but completed his 
education at Nashville, under Dr. Priestly, and boarded with Mr, 
Hume and roomed with John Bell and Ephraim Foster. After his 
collegiate course, he went as a volunteer on Gen. Hopkin's campaign 
on the Wabash, about Tippecanoe. He afterwards merchandised in 
Bowling Green, Ky., but has been for many years retired to private life, 
except a short period, during which he was clerk of the Hardin County 
Court. 

HON. A. H. CHURCHILL, 

another old citizen, was born near Louisville, on the 19th day of 
October, 1796, was educated at a school in the neighborhood, except 
about four months in the year 1807, in Elizabethtown, under Samuel 
Stevenson. In 1813 he entered Transylvania University, at Lexington, 
and remained there two years ; settled in Elizabethtown as a law prac- 
titioner in 1818. He was elected to the Senate of Kentucky in 1832, 
served only one session, and receiving the appointment of Circuit Judge 
in 1833, which office he held with great credit to himself, and satis- 
factory to the community. In 1847, to the regret of his friends, he 
resigned that office and retired to private life. 

During the time he was Judge of Hardin Circuit Court, I was clerk 
of the same court, and during those fourteen years I had a fair oppor- 
tunity of witnessing the impartial hand with which he dealt out justice. 
Regardless of the state or standing of parties, he struck for law and 
justice. He is a man fond of the comforts of home, and the family 
circle, and has been married four times. He is not only a moral, but a 
religious man and devotes much of his time to the interest of the Epis- 
copal Church, to which he belongs, and of which in a certain sense he is 
the sum and substance, as far as it concerns that body in Elizabethtown. 

REV. DR. WILLL^M W. LAMBUTH 

But few men have passed through more trying and difficult Scenes 

156 



than Dr. Lambuth. He was born near Gallatin, Tennessee, on the 
9th day of February, 1832. His parents immigrated to Kentucky in 
1847. Being a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, he having 
been set apart to the ministry, joined the Louisville Annual Conference, 
at Greenville, Ky., in 1855, and traveled as an itinerant preacher until 
1861. He was married to Miss Myra E. Matthis, in this town in 1858, 
and finding responsibilities resting upon him, he located, in 186 1, and in 
the fall of 1862 commenced merchandising with his father-in-law, Mr. 
David Matthis, of this place, and continued two years, when he com- 
menced studying medicine, which course he completed in 1866, and 
was graduated in both the Kentucky School of Medicine and the Uni- 
versity of Louisville; since which time he has regularly practiced his 
profession, but has never given up preaching. He has also for some 
years been keeping a drugstore in company with Judge Cofer, The 
Doctor was without patrimony, and had to struggle for the means of 
sustenance. His time in study and the expense of attending two courses 
of medical lectures, were severe upon him ; and yet the full trial of 
his faith had not come — but it did come. His aged father and mother 
were residing in Arkansas during the late war — the horrors of which 
will be long remembered. These good old people were burned out of 
house and home, turned out of doors, with two daughters, upon 
the cold charity of the world, and such was the desolation around 
that there were none to help but God, and they devoutly looked to Him 
for help, and help did come. The news of their calamity reached the 
ears of their son, the Doctor of whom I now write. The Doctor and his 
good lady thought themselves pressed hard enough already, but upon 
the news of their parents' disaster reaching them their hearts were 
enlarged, and the Doctor sped his way to the bereaved ones, and he 
brought the father and mother and two young sisters to his Kentucky 
home, and there in the bosom of his little family, they have shared to- 
gether the proceeds of their joint labor to this day — except the father, 
who passed away in April last. 

During the war the churches were all closed one winter, being oc- 
cupied by soldiers, as I have heretofore remarked. It was a solemn 
time, no thrilling sound of the church bell was heard, to gladden the 
Christian's heart. 

157 



For some months Dr. Lambuth with Rev. Samuel Williams, at my 
wife's special request, kept up a regular prayer meeting at my house 
every Thursday night. However boisterous or unpleasant the night, 
those two men of God were certain to be on hand. These exercises 
were the more pleasant because of the surrounding gloom. Long will 
they be remembered by the family. He now speaks of joining the 
Conference again in the traveling connection as an itinerant preacher. 

XLII 

REV. WILLIAM C. JONES 

Rev. William C. Jones, a Baptist minister, was born in Spencer 
county, Kentucky, in the year 1831. Educated at Georgetown College, 
where he graduated in 1858, he came to Elizabethtown in December, 
1859, and connected himself with the Baptist Church and was ordained 
to the ministry in January, i860, by a Presbytery composed of Dr. 
William Vaughan and Elders W. L. Morris and J. Toll Miller, and 
served the church at Elizabethtown four years, when he resigned the 
charge. He left Elizabethtown in 1864 and has for some time resided 
at LaGrange, Oldham county, Kentucky. He is now doing the work 
of an evangelist. Elder Jones has become an able preacher, stands 
high in his denomination and has scores of friends in this town. 

Col. Charles D. Poston was born in Hardin county on the 20th day 
of April, 1825, and remained on a farm until at the age of seven years, 
when his father removed to Elizabethtown and conducted a newspaper, 
The Western Sentinel. 

The young lad was printer's devil and news carrier in his father's 
office for several years, during which time he attended the school of 
Robert Hewitt and obtained the meagre rudiments of an English edu- 
cation. 

In January, 1837, he entered the office of the writer and served as 
deputy clerk for six years. By application he soon became an expert 
penman and an excellent clerk. At the expiration of his term (in 1843) 
he went to Nashville, Tennessee, and was employed as a deputy clerk in 
the office of the Supreme Court. In September, 1848, Mr. Poston was 
married to Margaret J. Haycraft, third daughter of the writer, in 
whose family he had been partly raised. 

158 



For some years he was engaged in commercial enterprises with his 
brother, Sanford J. Poston, in EHzabethtown. These enterprises hav- 
ing proved unfortunate, he emigrated to California in 1850 and was 
employed as chief clerk in the Custpm House at San Francisco for three 
years. 

The adventurous spirit engendered by a residence on the Pacific 
coast, and the pressure of unliquidated debts at home, induced Mr. 
Poston to undertake a daring expedition into the silver mining region 
of Northern Mexico about the time of Gadsden's purchase, which con- 
sumed the year of 1854. The year 1855 was passed in the seclusion of 
his early home with his family. 

In the year 1856 he started to explore the mineral regions of Arizona 
in the interest of the Southern Pacific Railroad, passing through the 
country of the Lipans, Comanches and Apaches, the most fierce and 
powerful Indian tribes upon the continent. 

It would be difficult to find in the brilliant history of our frontier 
experience a more daring enterprise than this. The mining business 
had scarcely been inaugurated when the late war commenced. By an 
order from the Government the forts w^ere burned and food of the 
enemy taken between California and Texas, following which the troops 
abandoned the country. The Mexicans and Indians caught the infec- 
tion of carnage and the mining establishments were broken up amid 
scenes of indescribable horror. The young brother of Mr. Poston, a 
noble young man just arrived at manhood, was foully murdered, and 
nearly all the companions and employes of Mr. Poston were killed in a 
shocking manner. Indeed, Professor Punpelly was the only surviving 
companion he had left, and with him was undertaken an escape from 
the scenes they passed through, and the hairbreadth escapes they made 
in their long wilderness travel is almost incredible to relate, but by 
dint of cool courage and skillful maneuvering, and enduring fatigue 
and toil and nearly driven to starvation, they reached San Francisco 
in the autumn of 1861. A year or two afterward upon, the organiza- 
tion of civil government in the territory which he had pioneered, Presi- 
dent Lincoln appointed Colonel Poston superintendent of Indian aflfairs. 
At the termination of this service he was elected first delegate to Con- 
gress from Arizona and served in the Thirty-eighth Congress. 

159 



In the summer of 1867, Mr. Poston made the tour of Europe. In 
December of the same year, at the residence of the writer, to a company 
of select ladies and gentlemen, his old friends and relations, he read a 
lecture, describing his tour and the nations he visited, in which he dis- 
played fine descriptive powers, and at the conclusion the thanks of the 
company was returned through the Rev. Samuel Williams and a printed 
copy of the lecture was ordered. The consequence was a neat and 
interesting little volume was issued, entitled "Europe in the Summer 
Time," by C. D. Poston. 

In the winter after his return he engaged for a time in the practice 
of law in Washington with Judge Betts, of California. 

Upon the arrival of the Chinese Embassy in the United States, 
Colonel Poston took a lively interest in the increasing relations with 
that country and was appointed by the Government as special commis- 
sioner to the different countries of Asia. In this mission he was ac- 
companied by his old friend, Ross Brown, then Minister to China. 

After leaving China, where he was treated with distinguished honors 
by the Government, as commissioner he visited the Indian Archipelago 
and thence went to British India, where he was treated with dis- 
tinguished consideration and furnished with every facility for traveling 
through that interesting country. 

In the spring of 1869 Colonel Poston found himself steaming up 
the Red Sea under the shadow of Mount Sini and anchored over the 
spot where Moses led the children of Israel over the Red Sea. He 
remained a short time in Eg\'pt, examining the modern wonder, the 
Suez Canal, and the ancient wonders, the pyramids of Egypt. He spent 
the summer in Europe. After having circumnavigated the globe and 
visited the principal capitals of Asia, he returned to New York, his tem- 
porary home, in October, 1869. 

Taking a short retrospect of the life of Colonel Poston, having 
crossed the plains to California on two occasions and once by water, 
thence his escape from Arizona, after which his travels around the 
world and among strange nations, some of which were hardly civilized, 
and the number of his companions in Arizona who were murdered, we 
are compelled to come to the conclusion that he wore a charmed life. 

MRS. WILLIAM D. VERTREES (In.) 

Among those who have left an impression upon Elizabethtown and 

160 



its people and one of those who stands out most distinctly was Mrs. 
William D. Vertress, or "Miss Eliza" as she was known to all of the 
children and most of the adults. Her maiden name was Eliza Ann 
Haynes. Her father was Dr. John Haynes, of Virginia, who was a 
graduate of medicine of either Harvard or Yale Medical School, and 
her mother was Martha Ann Campbell, of Massachusetts. They were 
married in Virginia and came across the mountains to Kentucky and 
settled at Big Spring. Eliza Haynes was born at Big Spring, October 
3, 1824. In November, 1854, she married William D. Vertress, a 
Mexican War veteran and later county judge of Hardin county. She 
was the first graduate of Bethlehem Academy. Mrs. Vertress was an 
active, highly intelligent, educated woman, a skillful musician, and 
unusually well read in the best literature. She was a Christian woman 
who was interested in everything for the good of the town and its 
people. Because of her unusual mental and personal qualities she was 
one of the town's most beloved characters. Nearly all persons in Eliza- 
bethtown, in middle life or beyond, who know anything of music got 
their grounding under "Miss Eliza" and have her among their fond 
recollections. 

Mr. and Mrs. Vertress had four children — Haynes, Martha, Charles 
and Catherine. Mrs. Vertress survived her husband and three of her 
children, and died at the home of her daughter, Catherine V. Young, at 
Oakmont, Pennsylvania, on January 30, 191 1. 

CHAPTER XLHI 

It has been suggested by some, that I have failed in my history to 
point out the bad characters who have figured upon the stage of action 
in and around Elizabethtown, and have mostly confined myself to men 
of good character. That to a certain extent is true. There were bad 
men, and some of them who sufifered capital punishment have been 
spoken of, and there might have been named also Simon Lundry, who 
killed his wife in a drunken fit, and was hung for it. He resided about 
ten miles from town and when sober was a kind husband. Also John 
Coyle, who passed for an Irishman, but was really a Swiss. He was 
a Greek scholar, but the roughest man of education I ever knew. He 
was suspected of killing his wife, and was hung for killing Stephens. 

161 ' 



He professed to be a Catholic, and availed himself of the services of 
more than one priest. On one occasion he was visited by a citizen to 
whom Coyle remarked, "On this day week (being the time fixed for his 
execution) I will be in Abraham's bosom, and then hope to see all my 
enemies brought up before God and punished." His visitor said, "Mr. 
Coyle, if you indulge in malice in your heart, can you expect to see 
God in peace? You must forgive your enemies." Coyle reflected a 
moment and then remarked, "Well, I forgive them for they are a damn 
trifling pack, and not worth hating." Notwithstanding the absolution 
he received, he died a perfect heathen. 

After the verdict was found against him, and sentence was about 
being pronounced the Judge asked him if he had anything further to 
say, why sentence of death should not be pronounced. Coyle arose, 
pulled ofif his coat and vest and rolled up his sleeves and took off his 
shoes. The Judge remarked, "You need not strip." Coyle said he 
was warm. All this time he kept his eye on a large iron poker that 
was leaning against the stove. I saw that it was evidently his inten- 
tion to seize the poker and fight his way out. I removed the poker. 
Coyle then commenced a speech, in which he reflected upon the Judge 
and Mr. Hardin, who prosecuted, then upon all the witnesses, denounc- 
ing them as liars, that he was only guilty of manslaughter and not mur- 
der. He warned the Judge that he would visit him in his bed-chamber, 
and-that as soon as his spirit was released from his body, he would choke 
Mr. Hardin to death and that each of the jurymen should receive a visit. 
The sheriff, standing by, requested that he might have a call, and Coyle 
promised to accommodate him. 

So might also be mentioned Spencer, who was hung for killing his 
step-son, and two negroes for committing outrages upon females, and 
another negro for chopping off his mistress's head with an axe while 
she lay asleep ; Wm. Hardin, who was sent to the penitentiary for 
killing Matthias Brandenburg; another for stealing sugar, and various 
other kinds of lighter crimes, and some lashed at the whipping-post. 
But be it remembered that none of those offenders were actually resi- 
dents of Elizabethtown. 

Candor also compels me to acknowledge that many of these persons 
of whom I have highly spoken, had some private foibles such as are 
common to the natural depraved nature of the human family, and 

162 



against which men and women of the highest culture, the brightest 
intellects and purest in morals, have had to contend and to grapple as 
with a giant. But time, long time, has woven itself into a mantle of 
charity and their good deeds are only remembered. I do not feel will- 
ing to adopt the sentiment of Mark Antony in his speech over Caesar's 
body that, "The evil that men do, lives after them, the good is often 
buried with their bones," but would rather adopt the language of the 
poet, who sang: 

" 'Tis distance gives enchantment to the view, 
And lends the mount its azure hue." 
Under the head of 

DOCTORS 

I discovered that I omitted to mention Doctor James Middleton, from 
Scotland, his native home, where he graduated, and settled in this town 
many years since, date not now remembered. He was a skillful 
physician and enjoyed a good practice. He married a Miss Briscoe, 
built a house and was a citizen with us for several years. The remains 
of the Doctor and his wife now rest in our town cemetery, but without 
a stone to mark the spot, and it is more than likely that no man beside 
myself could point out their graves. 

PREACHERS AGAIN 

A number of years since George Rogers, who was a wheelwright 
and chair maker, settled in Elizabethtown, owned property and carried 
on his trade. He was a worthy member of the Methodist church and 
became a minister in that denomination. I do not remember that he 
ever joined the traveling connection of that church. But after removal 
the Rev. Benjamin Ogden w^as nearly alone in the town as a cross 
bearer of his church and had much to contend with almost single 
handed. But notwithstanding the odds against which he had to contend 
he maintained his integrity so as to cause even his enemy to respect 
and like him, an instance of which I have heretofore given in speaking 
of the late John Morris who, in his young days, although not on speak- 
ing terms with Rogers, thrashed a man severely for cursing the preacher 
in the street. 

Mr. Rogers came to Elizabethtown when a young man and resided 
here many years, then removed to Bullitt county, where he still resides, 

163 



and is now an old man. If it is an offense to say so, George, I beg 
pardon. 

JACOB ELIOT, ESQ. 

also was once a citizen of Elizabethtown and played such a conspicuous 
part as to deserve special notice. 

He was born on the second day of September, 1803, in Otsego 
county. New York, where he received his early education, which was 
but limited as his father died when he was very young. He came to 
Kentucky in the year 1818 and in 1828 settled in Elizabethtown and 
published a newspaper called the "Kentucky Statesman." He resided 
in Elizabethtown nine years — was part of the time jailer of Hardin 
county. 

Some political c|uestion got him into a street difficulty with Mr. 
George Roberts, an attorney, on which occasion he shot Roberts in 
the back with a pistol for which he was tried but triumphantly acquitted. 
During his stay he was an active, useful citizen and became a useful 
member of the Baptist church. His house was a preacher's home and 
he was otherwise a liberal entertainer. In the year 1837 he removed 
to Louisville and became a partner of the late Shadrack Penn in pub- 
lishing the "Louisville Advertiser," a Democratic paper that for many 
years measured arms with the late George D. Prentice of the "Louis- 
ville Journal." 

In the year 1842 he was employed by a company largely interested 
in Texas lands to go to that state and attend to their interests in per- 
fecting their title and ascertaining its value. Mr. Eliot was admirably 
qualified for his business, having a clear head and discriminating 
mind and withal a man of unflinching courage, and that last qualifica- 
tion was necessary on account of the dangers from Indians and other 
enemies incident to a new country far from the center of civilization. 
He went as high as the Cross Timbers in Peter's Colony, now Dallas 
county. Here he dug out a kind of boat and descended the Trinity 
river to Buffalo Bayou and perhaps was the first white man that 
explored that river. He afterward made out a report of the river and 
the country through which it ran and published it in a London paper. 

He became largely interested in these lands and in the year 1849 
removed to Texas and settled in Corsicana, Navarro county, no incon- 
sider2ble place, where he yet resides. He was mainly active and instru- 

164 



mental in settling that portion of the state, has undoubted influence and 
is now United States commissioner by appointment. His life has been 
an eventful one and much checkered, and this short sketch gives but 
a very imperfect account as his long residence in Texas, and for many 
years almost inaccessible, forbids the idea of giving a correct account 
of him, such as might perhaps fill a volume. 

CHAPTER XLIV 

JACOB ELIOT AGAIN 

My attention has been drawn to my version of Eliot shooting George 
Roberts. It was stated in a careless manner and in such a way as to 
compromise the living and the dead. I simply said that Eliot shot 
Roberts in the back. On that occasion both individuals displayed true 
courage. Roberts attacked Eliot with a club or heavy walking stick, 
striking him across the bridge of his nose, knocking it quite flat. 
In the meantime Roberts lost his cane and ran to pick up a rock to 
throw at Eliot. Several persons were attempting to hold Eliot, who 
had drawn his pistol. Eliot, by extra exertion, threw off those who 
were attempting to hold him and fired at Roberts, who was some 
twenty-five or thirty feet off, in a stooping position picking up a rock. 
The ball struck Roberts on the side, ranging on the back. Then they 
were separated, both showing good pluck. 

BLACKSMITHS 

at this time all cannot be named. One-eyed Jake Blink was a gunsmith 
and blacksmith in the early history of the town. John Ferguson was 
also a blacksmith — cut no considerable figure except that he was the 
grandfather of Usher F. Linder, Esq., at this time in Chicago. Linder 
became a lawyer of considerable eminence, was an able debater and 
sometimes eloquent. He practiced law in Hardin for several years 
and then left for Charleston, 111., in which State he served in the 
Legislature and was elected Attorney General of the State. 

David Vance and Jack Quick were blacksmiths. John Rodman 
was also a fine blacksmith. 

Daniel M. Williams, born within two miles of this town, served his 
apprenticeship in Nelson, and about the year 1812 opened a shop in 

165 



this town. He was an industrious, hard working man and made things . 
move. In winter his hammers rang until 9 o'clock at night and at 5 
o'clock in the morning the well-known ring of his hammers awakened 
the sleepy neighbors. His wife was made of the same industrious 
stamp and the breakfasts were eaten by candlelight. When clerk of 
two courts I boarded at his house one year with my deputy, Wm. 
Fairley, Esq., and that year seemed to fix my early habits of risiirig'. 
The result was Williams, by honest industry, accumulated enough 
to buy an excellent farm on Middle Creek, where, as a prosperous 
farmer, he lived in high style, exercising the rights of hospitality as 
true Kentuckians in his day were famous for. But some few years 
ago he died, leaving a comfortable estate. 

JAMES COOK, 

an Englishman, was an excellent blacksmith, and carried on his trade 
extensively for several years, say from about 18 15 to about 1825, 
when he died in the prime of life. 

JAMES HAGEN 

Soon after came James Hagen. He carried on his smithing several 
years and moved to the country, where he died. 

JOSEPH SWEETS 

might be said to come next. A good, smooth and an accommodating, 
honest man ; still continues the business, tie is very fond of turkey 
hunting and as evidences of his trophies in that way he has nailed up 
to a joist a row of turkey legs more than any other man in town can 
boast of. Joe has had so much turkey that it is a wonder he has not 
grown fat, but he still continues in the race horse order. He is a 
quiet, worthy citizen. 

Many other blacksmiths of ancient date might be named, but they 
made no particular mark, rendering it unnecessary to mention them. 

MERCHANTS 

I have already named the most of them, but there is one man that 
deserves notice. 

LEWIS HELM 

was born on Hardins Creek, Washington county, and when a child 

166 



his father moved to Sugar Tree Run, in Breckinridge county, about 
the year 1819, where Lewis spent the first few years of his hfe. After 
his brother, the Hon. John B. Helm, got estabhshed in business, Lewis 
entered his store and afterward became a partner and continued busi- 
ness with various partners till shortly before his death in 1828. He 
was a fine specimen of a Kentuckian, tall and of large frame, of 
commanding appearance ; in fact, one of the finest looking men in 
Kentucky, and was universally popular. But notwithstanding his manly 
form and in early life his excellent health promising long life, he was 
taken ofif in the prime of life, leaving a handsome estate. 

COL. O. C. SHANKS, 

now of Hartford, Ohio County, a son of James Shanks, once surveyor 
of Bullitt county, was not actually a resident of Elizabethtown but was 
a freciuent visitor. 

He raised the Twelfth Kentucky regiment of cavalry and was at- 
tached to the brigade of Gen. Harlan. He was in the flight with Gen. 
Morgan at the Rolling Fork in January, 1863. He had in his possession 
the compass and chain used in laying out the city of Louisville. They 
were formerly owned by Wm. Peyton, who presented them to him in 
memory of his father, who was his old companion and acted together 
in surveying in early and dangerous times. 

I have now gone further in particularizing individual citizens than 
I originally proposed to do and my limits will necessarily compel me 
to leave out the names of many worthy men who in their day walked in 
our midst and filled up a space which without them would have been 
void, or I might have mentioned the names of John Park, David Weller 
and Joseph J. Hastings, who for many years were good citizens and 
active members of the Presbyterian church, who have gone to their 
reward. 

Also Geo. Matthis, John Quiggins, Merideth Arthur and R. D. 
Geohegan, now living and pillars of the Methodist Episcopal church. 

Also Samuel L. Hodgen, a zealous and godly man of the Christian 
church (better known as the Campbellite church), and his wife, Ann 
E. Hodgen, ]\Irs. Poston and Eliza \"ertrees, members of the same 
church, all now living except the first named, S. L. Hodgen, who was 
called home to his reward some years since. 

167 



I would with much pleasure have given the dates of the formation 
of the Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopal and Catholic churches, but 
have not been able to obtain the information, although I have frequently 
applied to the officials of these churches, and if at a future period, 
before I close this history, I am furnished the data I will give it publicity. 

I shall, in my succeeding numbers, turn my attention to the bar, 
or the attorneys who, in early years, practiced law in the courts of 
Elizabethtown. 

CHAPTER XLV 

HEZEKIAH SMALLWOOD 

was a worthy citizen whose name should not be forgotten — in fact, his 
monument stands in nearly one-half of the brick houses of Elizabeth- 
town, for he made the brick of which at least one-half of the houses 
were composed, up to August 7, 1869. I have not been able to learn to a 
certainty the place of his birth, but the early part of his days were spent 
about Alexandria, Virginia, near the District of Columbia. But as the 
people of the United States are noted for their roving or adventurous 
disposition and very few men, like myself, live all their lives where they 
were born, but generally seek some other place to live than the place of 
their birth, that is not at all surprising when we remember what a vast 
country we have — yes, room for all, and thousands of thousands, if not 
millions, more, and multipHed millions upon that, and heretofore the 
free laws and institutions of our country permitted the inhabitants to 
migrate from place to place until the spot was hit upon to suit the fancy 
of the individual seeking a home for life. Indeed, it was not uncom- 
mon for a man to settle down, open a farm and raise a large family, 
and then seek some place where he could have more room for expan- 
sion. In old England, where the population is dense and the habits 
of an old settled country established, it is common for generation after 
generation to occupy the same place and follow the same pursuits, de- 
scending from father to son and from son to grandson, down, down, 
down for hundreds of years, but not so in our land of such extensive 
range. 

So friend Smallwood emigrated from his birthplace and the first 
location I find him in, is Buffalo Creek, two miles from Elizabethtown, 

168 



in the year 1802, but he must have been about for some time before, 
for in the ardor of his youth he had wooed and won the hand of a 
Miss Frankie Owens. Her parents, fearing to trust their daughter to 
the hands of a stranger, objected. But bolts and bars are not so con- 
structed as to keep lovers apart. She went with him in open daylight 
from the paternal roof and, although a policy not always safe, she fell 
into the arms of one of the most affectionate husbands that ever lived. 
While living on Buffalo Creek he made a small kiln of brick for my 
father, and at the age of ten years I had the honor to break ofif the brick 
from the moulder's table, assisted by a younger brother. This was the 
second attempt to make brick in this town. It was looked upon as a 
great curiosity. One single mould was used, and twenty-five hundred 
brick a day, besides edging up and breaking, was considered a splendid 
day's work. 

Rev. Ben Ogden, a Methodist preacher, had about twenty-five hun- 
dred brick made to burn in the same kiln. I was employed to bear off, 
and received for it fifty cents in silver, the first money I ever owned. 
A double-bladed knife was a thing I had long coveted, and without 
suffering the money to burn my pocket, I hastened to Major Crutcher's 
store and spent my half-dollar, got the double-bladed knife and then 
ran home in a rapture of bliss and soon had the privilege of hearing 
myself called a calf. 

]\Ir. Small wood moved to Elizabethtown in 1806, opened a brick 
yard at the end of Main street and there moulded and burned brick for 
many years — in fact, until he had used all the dirt on his lot that was 
fit for brick. He then moved across the creek, built a better house 
and continued at his trade until death overtook him. Mr. Smallwood 
was strictly an honest man, and his heart was as deeply imbued with 
the milk of human kindness as ever throbbed in the breast of man. 
But at first he was a bad calculator and became involved in debt, and 
was actually committed to the county jail for nonpayment, that remnant 
of barbarous ages, imprisonment, yet resting on our books, but some 
friend bailed him out and, having learned from experience, he was more 
fortunate, paid his debts and lived comfortably the balance of his days. 

On perusing an old record of the Baptist Church, I find that in 
July, 1802, he was appointed by the church to cite a disorderly member 
to appear and answer. Of course he must have belonged to the church 

169 



for some time before, but the old record has a httle touch of fire, and 
the date and manner of his reception in the church cannot be found. 
He died in the year 1838, having Hved a consistent member of the 
church. His descendants are partly among us to this day (1870). His 
son, James S. Smallwood, a worthy man, met his death a few years 
since on the railroad. He left a genteel, deserving family. One of his 
daughters was lately married to the Rev. J. S. Gatton, the present popu- 
lar pastor of the Baptist Church in this town. A grandson, John H. 
Stewart, Esq., is United States assessor for this county, a faithful and 
efficient officer. Some think he is so straight up that he leans a little 
back in his zeal to serve the Government in good faith. 

Our old friend had another son, who now lives in Kansas, Hender- 
son Smallwood, Esq., and report says his son, Hillary Smallwood, is 
elected secretary of state of Kansas, having previously served in the 
Senate of that State. 

PRINTERS 

Hon. Stephen Elliot was born in Otsego county. New York, in 
February, 1806. After receiving a common school education he served 
an appr-snticeship in the printing business at the then country town 
about five miles east of where the city of Syracuse now stands. This 
town was then composed of one frame house. It would take a de- 
tective with a search warrant to find the place now, as it is swallowed up 
by the city. He came to Kentucky in 1823 and spent some time in that 
part of Breckinridge county called QuaHty Corner, so called on account 
of the settlement of a number of Virginia gentlemen, high-toned, 
wealthy and rather aristocratic, such as the Alexanders, Andersons, 
Washingtons, Browns, Fishers, Murrays, etc. They occupied a beauti- 
ful valley of rich land, where was kept up for years old Virginia in 
miniatuie, with all its proverbial hospitality, social visits and good cheer, 
and the usual round of Virginia sports and pastimes, and lucky was the 
man of leisure and decent apparel that got into their society on a favora- 
ble footing, for he was carried round from house to house and feasted 
at tables that literally groaned under the most precious viands of the 
land, including game, fowl, fish and generous wines, such as would 
make an epicure lick his lips and congratulate himself on his comforta- 
ble quarters. 

170 



Stephen roamed about a little, found out the names of really every 
man and woman on Sugar-tree run, spent a while at Natchez, Missis- 
sippi, then at Hardinsburg, Breckinridge county, and was employed in 
a printing office soon after he came to Elizabethtown in April, 1826. 

Here he engaged in the first printing office ever established in 
Elizabethtown, publishing a paper called the Western Intelligencer, 
edited by John E. Hardin and published by Milton Gregg. He was 
afterward engaged with his brother, Jacob Elliot, in publishing the 
Kentucky Statesman. He opened a new office in the spring of 1834 and 
published a paper called the Kentucky Register, and in connection 
with various partners continued its publication for many years, after 
which he retired from the printing business and engaged in other 
pursuits. He is perhaps the oldest practical printer in the State. He 
has preserved several mementoes of the art, one of them a composing 
stick, which from its appearance is at least one hundred years old. It 
is made of brass and is worn almost as thin as paper. Another is an 
ancient printing press stowed away in an upper room over one of his 
store houses. It is part wood and part iron, called Stansberry's patent. 
This press was once owned by the Hon. Thomas Chilton, who published 
a paper on it in this town. It was then considered a great improvement 
on all printing presses then known. 

NOW LOOK AT IT 

Judge Elliot was for many years a justice of the Hardin County 
Court and also filled the office of city judge. He is yet an active busi- 
ness man of the first order of business qualities, and has lately shown 
good taste in the opened fronts and other improvements on his store 
houses on Main street, which has greatly improved the appearance 
of things in that quarter. 

CHAPTER XLVI 

In taking up my recollections of the bar or attorneys that practiced 
at the bar in Elizabethtown, as an impartial historian it will involve some 
labor and delicacy. 

That history commenced in my infancy and some of it before I 
was born. Of course I have drawn to a certain extent upon tradition.- 
It is not my intention to go into the history of the young fry of lawyers 

171 



now at the bar, but of such as are now dead or have made history for 
themselves. 

LAWYERS 

The first lawyer that ever sat his foot in Severn's Valley in which 
Elizabethtown now stands was 

JAMES DOHERTIE, 

in January, 1793, of whom I have heretofore spoken. He came to my 
father's house, then in a wilderness, and being out of money, proposed 
to work his way and assisted in providing wood, etc., during the coming 
sugar-making season, which opened in February, and aided my mother 
and the children in making "home-made sugar." There was quite a 
camp on the old farm of tall, beautiful sugar trees standing thick on 
the ground. The undergrowth was chiefly pawpaw and spicewood. 

Did any of my readers ever visit an old-fashioned sugar camp? 
Imagine for a furnace a trench three feet wide on a hillside, of sufficient 
depth for staving in wood, and a row of kettles set on the furnace and 
fastened around with spauls of stone and clay with a chimeny three feet 
high in the rear, then a half faced camp built around three sides cov- 
ered with boards, with a large trough on each side to hold sugar water 
and sometimes a few still tubs. 

Then the trees v\'ere tapped by cutting a notch in each tree capable 
of holding a gill, then a gimlet hole at the corner into which a small 
elder stalk was inserted — that was called the spile — a wooden trough 
under each spile of about the capacity of two gallons, which on good 
sugar days from a full grown tree was filled with sap about twice a 
day, then a gentle horse was hitched to a wood sled holding a barrel 
and a funnel in it made out of a gourd, and you have all the machinery 
used in sugar making. 

Now, if none of you have ever broiled a piece of middling on a stick 
over the chimney of a sugar furnace, then had a tincup full of spice- 
wood tea made of boiling sugar water, with a cold corn johnny cake or 
corn dodger and luxuriated upon it, you know nothing about the real 
luxury of life. 

Sally Lunn, pound cake, rusk, even Hallent russ as the Irish cook 
would call it, roast beef, plum pudding and all such nicknacks eaten in 
houses on tables will not compare to it. Then the molasses and tacky- 

172 



wax made at those camps threw every other dehcacy in the shade. But 
I have digressed. I was going to talk about lawyers. 

Well, in due time the 26th of February rolled around. The first court 
that ever sat in Hardin county took place at the house of Isaac Hynes in 
Severn's Valley. A quarter session court opened in due form of law, 
and then the announcement was made, "O-yes, O-yes, O-yes, silence is 
now commanded under the pain of fine and imprisonment while the 
justice of the Hardin Quarter Session Court is now in sitting. All who 
have suits to prosecute please enter or motions to make come forward 
and you will be heard. God save the Commonwealth." 

Then James Dohertie left the camp, washed his face and hands, 
gathered a paper out of his knapsack and wended his way to this new 
court, showed his law license and was sworn in as an attorney-at-law, 
and the occurrence astonished all the men and women in the Valley. 
I never saw Dohertie, for it was two years and a half before I saw 
the light, and then he had departed to parts unknown. 

THE HON. STEPHEN ORMSBV 

was admitted to the bar on the 24th day of September, 1793. He was a 
sturdy Irishman from the old sod. Some years afterward he was ap- 
pointed circuit judge and presided in Hardin several years. He lived 
in Louisville, and 1 think he died there. 

WILLIAM M. LONG, ESQ., 

on the same day was appointed by the court as attorney for the Com- 
monwealth. Each county then appointed their own prosecuting attor- 
ney and the governor did not commission them. Tradition says he was 
a profound lawyer and an able jurist. He also left before I was born. 

JAMES NOURSE, ESQ., 

was admitted to the bar at the June term, 1794. He was said to be a 
good lawyer and a first-rate surveyor, and wrote a hand of surprising 
beauty. He was a business man and highly esteemed by a large circle 
of acquaintances, but in consequence of some aberration of mind he 
died by his own hand, leaving a family of the highest respectability, 
and was unusually regretted. Indeed, it was a shock upon the com- 
munity in which he lived. Bardstown was his home. 

173 



ALLEN MILTON WAKEFIELD 

was admitted to the bar in December, 1795, and must have been con- 
sidered an able lawyer, as he was appointed with the judges after the 
formation of the Circuit Court system. 

HON. JOHN POPE 

was admitted to the bar on the 2nd day of February, 1796. He was 
born in Prince William county, Virginia, in 1770. Having when quite 
young lost his right arm by accident, he determined to study law and 
attained the very highest eminence at the bar. He removed to Ken- 
tucky and served a number of years in the Lgislature. He was a 
senator in Congress from Kentucky from 1807 to 1812, and after acting 
a part of the time as president pro tem. of that body, in 1829 he was 
appointed governor of Arkansas. He served as a representative in 
Congress from 1836 to 1843. He resided many years in the city of 
Lexington, but in the latter part of his life removed to Springfield, in 
Washington county. He was a handsome man of large stature and 
pleasing address, and stood as high as any man of his day as an elo- 
quent pleader. He died July 12, 1845. 

HON. FELIX GRUNDY 

first came to Elizabethtown at September term, 1797. He was born in 
Virginia, September 11, 1770, removed with his father to Kentucky, 
and was educated at Bardstown Academy. He studied law and soon 
became distinguished at the bar. He commenced his public career at 
the age of twenty-two as a member of the Legislature of the State of 
Kentucky. In 1806 he was appointed a judge of the Supreme Court of 
Kentucky and soon after chief justice. In the year 1807 he removed 
to Nashville, Tennessee, and became eminent as a lawyer. From 1811 
to 1814 he was a representative in Congress from Tennessee, and during 
several years he was a representative in the Legislature of that State. 
From 1829 to 1838 he was United States senator, and fn later years was 
appointed by President Van Buren attorney general of the United 
States. In 1840 he resigned that position and was again elected senator 
in Congress. He died in Nashville on December 12, 1840. If all the 
public acts of this extraordinary man could be collected it would make 
a volume. 

174 



CHAPTER XLMI 

In my last number I commenced giving my recollections of the 
bar at Elizabethtown. 

And having in that number arrived at a point where I needed the 
knowledge of some facts I found I had omitted some professional 
men. For instance : 

DR. JAMES W. SMITH 

came to Elizabethtown about the year 1830 and remained here the 
balance of his life. As a physician he was a very popular man, had 
an extensive practice and accumulated a handsome estate. He built 
the Shower's house and resided in it until his death, which occurred 
in the year 186 — . The Doctor had many warm friends, who deeply 
regretted his death. 

HEZEKIAH SMALLWOOD AGAIN 

It has been suggested to me that I should not have spoken of his 
imprisonment for debt. But I contend that it was proper to name it, 
for that made a turning point in the management of his temporal 
concerns. He was not imprisoned for crime or disorderly conduct, 
for he was well known by all as a strictly honest man and an orderly 
walking Christian man. But it was for debt, and how did he become 
indebted? It grew out of the goodness and kindness of his heart in 
employing more hands than was necessary to carry on his business 
in order that their labor might be lighter, and his generosity in giving 
those hands too high wages and then, through mistaken policy, feasted 
them too high. All these things closed in on him stealthily but steadily 
and caught him unawares in debt, and some Shylock must needs have 
his pound of flesh, availed himself of a law then in existence, a relic 
of barbarism and a disgrace to our statute books, and cast him into 
prison. Some generous friend assisted him, and having discovered the 
leak which sunk his ship he adopted a new policy, paid all his debts and 
lived in comfort the balance of his days. To say that he lived com- 
fortably does not express the true status of his family, for if there ever 
was a family in which true kindness and love toward each other existed 
in an eminent degree it was to be found under the happy roof of 
Hezekiah Smallwood. 

17s 



There all the generous feelings and affections existing in the family 
circle, embracing the connubial, parental, paternal relations were culti- 
vated, not as a cold science, but were the spontaneous outgushings of 
the deeply seated and over-flowing fountains of generous souls and 
loving hearts. 

In the number heretofore published in speaking of the descendants 
of the old patriarch I made an allusion to his grandson, John H. 
Stewart, Esq., the typesetter omitted the word ALMOST, which left 
some little doubt about the proper construction of the passage. I 
meant to convey the idea that he was a faithful and honest officer, 
striving to secure to the Government all that was right under the law 
and no more, and my remark that he was so straight up as (almost) to 
lean back was merely intended to give my idea of an honest officer. 

One of Hezekiah Smallwood's daughters married a gentleman named 
William Deckar. One of his sons, Henry Deckar, lives in Owensboro, 
Ky., a respectable young man, a strong advocate of temperance, and 
belongs to the Good Templars. But the paper of that city has rather 
pitched into him, charging him with having taken two horns and that 
it was a matter of record. This was rather calculated to shake the 
confidence of his friends in his sobriety until it was explained. He 
had been twice married and each time to a lady named Horn. 

I have been particular in giving the descendants of my old friend, 
having previously spoken of Hillary Smallwood, a grandson, who was 
a Senator in Kansas and now elected Secretary of State, in order to 
show the progressive nature of our institutions and how from small 
beginnings and humble pretentions, where honesty and correct morals 
are taught and better feelings of the heart cultivated, there is, com- 
paratively speaking, no bounds set to the attainments and prosperity 
of the descendants down the stream of time, flowing from such a 
fountain. 

NEWSPAPERS AGAIN 

In 1857 J. T. Phillips bought out the Elizabethtown Intelligencer, 
a "know nothing" paper which was previously published by C. G. 
Smith and George Parker with decided ability. When Smith and 
Parker sold out they went to Glasgow, where they published a paper 
for some time. Geo. W. Parker, Esq., on quitting that paper, removed 

176 



to Charleston, 111., where he is now a successful practitioner of law 
and vice-president of a railroad company. 

Phillips then commenced the publication of the Elizabethtown 
Democrat, the first Democratic paper ever published in the county 
except a paper previously published by Chas. Hutchings many years 
before. In i860 Phillips sold out his paper to Colonel, now Judge M. 
H. Cofer, who continued the paper until shortly before he went to 
the Southern Confederacy in the late war. 

T. J. Phillips is now jailor of Hardin county, serving his second 
term, to which office he was elected by the people. In addition to which 
he is now foreman in the printing office of Matthis & Bell. 

R. B. B. WOOD, ESQ. 

In 1862 he edited a small paper called the Democrat. In 1865 he 
was junior editor of the Elizabethtown Banner at its commencement, 
and became editor of that paper on the retirement of Captain Frank 
D. Moffit. Some of his articles were extensively copied, especially one 
on General Burbridge, w^hich was copied all over the country. He 
was, for a short time, local editor of the Kentucky Telegraph and 
became one of its editors. This paper was started by Mr. Barbour 
and for a short time was published daily. 

He retired from that paper for the purpose of accepting the position 
of city attorney for Elizabethtown and to resume the practice of law. 
He has been an occasional correspondent for many papers, among which 
were the Louisville Journal, Louisville Courier and Louisville Demo- 
crat, the Nashville Gazette and the New York Daily Netvs. . 

He has written some very passable poetry and continues to write 
occasionally for the press. He has never served a regular apprentice- 
ship in a printing office or been printer's devil, but has been about 
and connected with printing offices so long that he is a tolerably fair 
printer. At the last election he was elected justice of the peace in the 
town district, and has lately been appointed by Judge Cofer as examiner 
for Hardin County. 

CHAPTER XLVIII 
In the early part of my history I commenced rather extensively 
on the life and character of Hon. Henry P. Brodnax. 

177 



In my fifty-third number I was taking up my recollections of the 
bar, remarking on each in the order in which they came to the bar. 
When I came to Henry P. Brodnax I made a short notice in these 
words : 

HENRY p. BRODNAX 

was a Virginian by birth, was admitted to the bar in Elizabethtown 
in April, 1796. On being appointed circuit judge he removed from 
Bardstown to Russellville, in Logan county. 

As I have heretofore spoken of him I do not deem it necessary 
to repeat what I have already said of him. 

He was a man of remarkable neatness, high toned and somewhat 
inclined to be aristocratic. 

Then followed the words : "David Donan was also admitted to 
the bar in April, 1796." I never knew Tiim, nor do I know of any 
man who did know him, and can only say that he was a lawyer at 
the bar 74 years ago. 

Our clever typo, Mr. Yeager, was setting up the number, and after 
the words, "Brodnax was admitted to the bar in April, 1796," he cast 
his eyes to the street, perhaps to see a dog fight, and on turning his 
face to the case caught the same April, 1796, under the name of Donan, 
and followed him out, which made me cut the acquaintance of my old 
friend the Judge, under whose eyes I had drawn hundreds of pages 
of record. 

This omission attracted the attention of my old friend, Mark 
Hardin, of Shelbyville, Ky. He is a fast man, and popped into this 
world 14 years before I did, is as sound as a rock, writes without 
spectacles, and has a memory like a book, and he began to take notice 
of things 14 years before I did and for my tardiness in coming to taw 
he has once or twice given me a raking down. But seeing that the 
printer had made me say that I never knew Brodnax and that I had 
never seen anybody that did know him, he came to my rescue in 
the following letter: 

Shelbyville, 7th February, 1871. 
Sam'l Haycraft, Esq. 

My Dear Old Friend : Will you permit me to come to the rescue ? 
"You know nothing of Henry P. Brodnax, and I never saw anybody 
that did." I pretend not to remember the date, but the first time I 

178 



saw him, in the summer, he had on a coat made of white ribbed 
dimity. The skirts nearly touched the ground, the pockets were on 
the outside — white cassimere short breeches, knee buckles, silver with 
weighty sets, in pure glass, or like glass, very fine cotton stockings, 
hair powdered and tied behind, very light hair, light eyes and thin 
white skin, finely 'formed, and fully common sized man, always dressed 
neat, had some peculiarities if not eccentricities, rather holding himself 
above the commonality. He was made one of our circuit judges and 
settled in Russellville and for a time in Logan county in the country. 

He became an active, zealous Cumberland Presbyterian, built a 
church at his own expense, on his own land, and was very active in 
the service of the church. 

He had enemies and the house of worship was burned down. 
Eventually he joined the Old School Presbyterian church. He never 
married and by his will, as he had received nothing from his family, 
so he chose to will a large portion of his property to be devoted to 
the education of the needy, upward of twenty thousand ($20,000) 
dollars was appropriated to the Brodnax professorship in the Theo- 
logical Seminary at Danville some time between the years of 1850 
and i860. 

There is a monument to his memory erected in the cemetery at 

Russellville, 1859. So much to replace or to refresh the vacuum which 

time has blotted from your memory. I thank you for yours of 

December. 

Your friend, ,, ,t 

Mark Hardin, 

I am inclined to thank the printer for skipping 13 lines, as it was 
the means of supplying me with items before I knew the Judge. My 
knowledge of him did not run back to the dimity coat and I lost sight 
of him before he left the Cumberland and joined the Old School 
Presbyterian and made them that liberal donation. I thank my old 
friend Hardin as it began and finished out the portrait of Judge 
Brodnax in handsome style. 

GABRIEL JOHNSON, ESQ. 

was admitted to the bar in October, 1797. He lived in Louisville and 
ranked high among the profession, and I regret that I have not the 
means of taking a more extensive notice of him. 

179 



It is an old saying that a man can be judged by the company he 
keeps. In October, 1797, when Johnson was admitted to the same 
term with Governor Edwards, there was a suit pending in the Hardin 
Quarter Session Court, of Joseph Bamett's against Robert Baird's 
heirs, involving the title to lands in what is now Ohio and Daviess 
counties, and now worth a million dollars. Even then, at the low price 
of land, it was deemed of great importance and it was thought by the 
representatives of the parties that the greatest legal talent should be 
employed in an arbitration of the matters in suit, and accordingly 
Henry P. Brodnax, John Rowan, Felix Grundy, John Pope, Ninian 
Edwards and Gabriel Johnson were chosen as the arbitrators. They 
constitute the ablest body of referees ever appointed in Kentucky to 
decide a law suit. Indeed, they would have constituted a strong com- 
mission in settling the question between Prussia and France, and either 
of them would have made a fair president of the United States, as 
their after history has fully proven. 

Richard Harris, Esq., was sworn in at the bar in April, 1798. 

SAMUEL BRENTS, ESQ. 

was a resident of Green county, Kentucky, was admitted to the bar 
April, 1800. He was a lawyer of considerable note, was frequently 
elected to represent his county in the Legislature of Kentucky, had an 
extensive and lucrative practice. He died of cholera at his home in 
Greensburg in the year 1832 or 1833. 

CHAPTER XLIX 

ALEXANDER POPE 

was admitted to the bar in April, 1803. 

He was a son of William Pope and a younger brother of Gov. 
John Pope. He was a well educated gentleman and a good lawyer and 
for many years was the prosecuting attorney for Hardin county. 

He was highly social and companionable and of peculiar modesty 
— such as was not common to his profession, and of great amiability. 
But in early life he was seized with an incurable disease. With the 
hope of relief he visited Eastern cities and was informed by the ablest 
physicians that his was a hopeless case. 

180 



One of our most intelligent merchants accompanied him home from 
Philadelphia and found Mr. Pope, notwithstanding he looked upon his 
days as numbered, to be a social and agreeable traveling companion. 
On arriving at home at Louisville he patiently and pleasantly awaited 
his time without a murmur and passed away in the meridian of his 
manhood, at his residence, with his family and friends around him. 

JOHN W. HOLT 

was admitted to the bar in March, 1802. Mr. Holt settled in Elizabeth- 
town and was one of our citizens for a few years. He was a quiet, 
unobtrusive gentleman and found that the practice of law did not suit 
his pacific disposition, retired from the practice and settled on the Ohio 
River, in Breckinridge, near Stephensport, and was for years a suc- 
cessful farmer. He lived and died in great tranquillity and was the 
father of Dr. Richard Holt and Thomas Holt, the latter now occupying 
the old homestead. He was also the father of Judge Advocate General 
Joseph Holt, of Washington city. 

DAVID TRIMBLE 

was admitted to the bar at the July term, 1803. I am not prepared to 
give any definite account of him. 

WORDEN POPE, ESQ. 

was sworn in as a practicing attorney at the bar of this county in 
October, 1803. He was born on Pope's Creek, Virginia, in the year 
1772. His father was Benjamin Pope, brother of Wm. Pope, who 
also came to Kentucky with his family, and from the two brothers, 
Benjamin and William, sprang all the Pope family in Kentucky. 

Worden Pope came to Kentucky with his father in the year 1779, 
and first settled in Louisville, but owing to its unhealthful condition 
and its water at that time, his father, believing that the land on Salt 
River was as good as Bear Grass land, and not having the remotest 
idea of the future city and its improved condition as to water and 
health, purchased land on Salt River and settled about a mile and a 
half below Shepherdsville, in Bullitt county. The farm is now owned 
and occupied by his grandson, Jas. Y. Pope. 

Benjamin Pope established a ferry across Salt River at Shepherds- 
ville and put his son, Worden Pope, of whom I now write, in charge 
of the ferry. While thus employed it chanced that the Hon. Stephen 



Ormsby, who was then clerk of the Jefferson Circuit and County Courts, 
passed that way and was rowed across Salt River by young Worden 
Pope. Ormsby, who was afterward Circuit Judge and a member of 
Congress, was attracted by something about the young ferryman and 
drew him into conversation, and seeing at once that he had a mind far 
superior to common ferry boys told him that if he would come to 
Louisville he would make a man of him, and on reporting the con- 
versation to his father consent was obtained for Worden to go to 
Louisville, and he determined at once to accept Mr. Ormsby's offer. 
But going to Louisville to live required a little outfit, or rigging out, and 
this was soon accomplished, and so arraying himself in a coonskin 
cap and a pair of buckskin moccasins and a pair of corduroy pants — 
I never ascertained to a certainty what supplied the place of coat, but 
it is most likely and almost certain that it was a dressed buckskin 
hunting shirt. And my preference is that it should have been so. Thus 
equipped, he footed it through the woods to Louisville. As the city 
was then a small town he soon found the clerk's office and commenced 
writing under Judge Ormsby, and from that day until the day of his 
death he was never idle, boy or man. I knew him for about 30 years 
and can testify that I never knew a man of more patient industry 
and constant application to business. In the year 1796 Judge Ormsby 
resigned the clerkship in both courts and Worden Pope was appointed 
and held both offices until 1834, when he resigned the Circuit Court 
clerkship and held on the County Court until his death, April 20, 1838. 
He was a regular practitioner at the bar in Elizabethtown and boarded 
with Major Ben Helm, the clerk, with whom I lived. His habit at 
Court time was to come to the office very night and, if not profes- 
sionally engaged, would sit by me for hours and dictate the forms as 
I drew up the orders of court, and it was mainly to him that I was 
indebted for what clerical knowledge I possessed. He took considerable 
interest in me, for which I have always been thankful. He was a fine 
historian and when I received the appointment of clerk he urged upon 
me the necessity of reading, and particularly historical works, and 
furnished me a list which I purchased and have in my library to 
this day. 

The proceedings of the Louisville bar after his death are so just 
and true that I will, without comment, give those proceedings, to-wit: 

182 



"At a meeting of the judge and members of the Louisville bar, 
and the officers of the courts, on the 21st day of April, 1838, 

"On motion of the Hon. J. J. Marshall, the Hon. George M. Bibb 
was called to the chair, and on motion of Henry Pirtle, Garnet Duncan 
was appointed secretary, and the following preamble and resolutions 
were offered by the Hon. John Rowan (after announcing his death 
the preamble reads) : 

"He came to Kentucky in the year 1779 and, after encountering 
the hardships and sharing the dangers incident to the condition of the 
country he availed himself of the limited means of education then 
accessible to inform his mind and qualify himself for future usefulness. 
Endowed by nature with a good constitution and a vigorous mind he 
improved the former by manly exercise and enriched the latter by 
zealous and unremitting devotion to the attainment of solid and useful 
information. Without the aid of a classical education he acquired a 
thorough and accurate knowledge of literature. He was not a man 
of showy or ornamental display. In the profession his strength was 
in the extent and accuracy of his knowledge and the soundness of his 
judgment. He was temperate in all his enjoyments, patient of labor and 
research in whatever he was engaged, benevolent and charitable in a 
high degree, or moral firmness and sincerity and friendship, his 
enmities were slow in forming and swift in fading; his manners were 
neither gracious nor repulsive ; he had an habitual aversion to artificial 
or fictitious mannerism ; his manners and morals were formed in the 
old school where the solid was preferred to the showy and where 
stimulated courtesies were rebutted by honesty and sincerity of senti- 
ment. Influenced through life by sentiments of that school and the' 
inherent benevolence of his own heart and feelings, his powers and 
attachments were devoted more to the benefit of society than of himself. 
As clerk he was in a position to be consulted by the widow, the orphan 
and the indigent, and his knowledge of law enabled him to obey the 
kind impulses of his nature and beneficially to the applicants. 

"Although he possessed the facilities for speculation beyond every- 
body else, he never touched it, so that it may be said of him emphatically 
he lived for others, not for himself. 

"These facts of his life constitute his best eulogy and the more 

183 



there shall be known of him the more his loss will be deplored and his 
memory revered." 

Worden Pope deserved every word of praise contained in the 
resolutions. 

He was a profound lawyer and perhaps one of the best lawyers 
in the State. He was engaged in the United States Court in Kentucky 
in one of the most important cases ever tried in the State. The whole 
of the city of Louisville and adjacent lands was involved, worth 
millions. In that case Judge Mills and Robert Wickliffe were the 
opposing counsel. He succeeded in the case. It was appealed from, 
but in consequence of Mr. Pope being very nearsighted by day and 
totally unable to see at night he was prevented from arguing the case 
at Washington. 

He was personally devoted to, and intimate with the President, 
General Jackson. On the first election of General Jackson he offered 
Mr. Pope any appointment in his gift, but with his usual disinterested- 
ness he declined by saying that he would be satisfied if Governor John 
Pope was promoted to the Supreme bench. He practiced law in the 
counties of Bullitt, Oldham, Hardin, Nelson and Meade. 

In consequence of a fall he was paralyzed, which occasioned his 
death. 

The length of this number prevents my saying anything about his 
descendants. 

CHAPTER L 

APOLOGETIC 

Business of importance of public and private character over which I 
had no control has caused me to suspend my history from the 23rd day 
of March past. I hope in future to be more regular until I close. 

GOV. WILLIAM p. DUVALL 

was admitted to the bar in Elizabethtown in October, 1804. 

He was born in Virginia in the year 1784 and there received his 
education. In his youth he was a little inclined to be wild ; he was fond 
of a gun, a chicken fight and a horse race. While but a youth he de- 
termined to come to Kentucky and so announced to his father. A con- 
sultation was held as to what should be his outfit. His father remarked, 

184 



"If I give you a negro you will sell him the first chance and spend the 
money you get for him; if I give you a horse you will bet him ofif at 
the first horse race you see, and if I give you a pocket full of money 
you will bet it off or give it away. You love a gun and would not part 
with that." 

So it finally wound up by giving him a strong suit of clothes fitted 
for the woods, a gun with ammunition, a knapsack with a shirt or two, 
and other light fixings. 

With a light heart he took leave of his many relatives and told them 
he would never come back until he was a member of Congress. So he 
footed it over the mountains and through forests, crossing many rivers, 
and his only companion was his trusty rifle, which for a great portion 
of the travels furnished his food. 

He arrived at Bardstown, Kentucky, and there halted, being satis- 
fied that was a good place for him, laid aside his gun and commenced 
the study of law under Judge Brodnax, and during the time of study 
fell in love with and married a daughter of Col. Andrew Hynes. 
Colonel Hynes was the founder of Elizabethtown, and the town was 
name in honor of his wife, Elizabeth Hynes. 

Duvall, having sown his wild oats, devoted himself to his studies 
and soon commenced the practice of his profession. As no lawyer then 
resided in Elizabethtown, he was appointed county attorney of Hardin 
county and was a regular practitioner in the courts of the county until 
1822. 

In the year 181 2 he became candidate for Congress, and such was 
his general popularity that no one opposed him. He served in Congress 
in 1813-14. On his first trip to Washington he visited his relatives in 
Virginia for the first time after leaving there, thus verifying his promise 
that he never would return to Virginia until he came as a congressman. 

In 1822 he was appointed governor of Florida by President Monroe, 
and was reappointed by Presidents Adams and Jackson. While at- 
tending court in Elizabethtown in 1810, 181 1 and 1812 he boarded 
at the house of Major Ben Helm, as also did Worden Pope and Fred 
W. S. Grayson. I was then a lad, acting under Major Ben Helm as 
deputy clerk, and sat at the same table, and it was a feast to listen to 
their pleasant conversation and sallies of wit. 

i8s 



Governor Duvall was the very life of the social company, always 
humorous and pleasant, and was a good parlor singer. He was, in fact, 
one of the most generous hearted, liberal men that I ever knew, and his 
house in Bardstown was the seat of hospitality. But in his advanced 
years he was not without his troubles. His two sons, Burr H. Duvall 
and John Duvall, were soldiers in the war between Texas and Mexico 
and belonged to the command of Colonel Fannin. That whole com- 
mand were taken prisoners by the Mexicans. After detaining them two 
days they were marched out with a Mexican regiment by the side of 
them under the pretense they were to be removed to some other post. 
Two young Mexican officers who had been educated at St. Joseph Col- 
lege at Bardstown, and well acquainted with the young Duvalls and 
often enjoyed the hospitality of Governor Duvall, promised ample 
protection to the young men, but proved faithless. After they had 
marched out clear of the encampment they were halted in line and 
the Mexicans ordered to fire upon them. At the first fire nearly all of 
Fannin's men fell dead. Burr H. Duvall and Jefiferson Merrifield, also 
a Kentuckian, fell dead. About four hundred men were thus brutally 
massacred. As if by a miracle John Duvall was not hit, and he ran for 
life with a squad of Mexicans after him until they reached a river. 
John plunged in and swam across amidst a shower of musket balls, 
but escaped unwounded. He traveled several days without food and 
finally reached home. 

In the year 1848 the Governor moved to Texas and died at Washing- 
ton City, ]\Iarch 19, 1854. 

At the same term William Watkins and' George Strauther were 
admitted to the bar. They continued but a short time, and I can give 
no satisfactory account of them. 

Judge Henry Ravidge was admitted to the bar at April term, 1805. 
He did not continue long at the bar, but was promoted to the judicial 
bench in one of the lower circuits of the State. He was an amiable man 
of excellent character. 

HON. BEN HARDIN 

was admitted at the July term, 1805, being the twenty-first lawyer 
sworn in the court at Elizabethtown. He was born in \\^est Morland 
county, Pennsylvania, in the year 1784. 

186 



He was a son of Ben Hardin, who married Sarah Hardin, the eldest 
sister of Col. John Hardin, of whom I have heretofore spoken at length. 

The Hon. Ben Hardin, of whom I now write, might be said to be all 
Hardin, as his father and mother were both Hardins and first cousins. 

Mr. Hardin when a boy received his first lessons in education under 
Ichabod Radley, and then at Bardstown under Daniel Barry, an Irish 
linguist. 

Barry was an irritable man and in a controversy with Gilpin, a 
silversmith, Gilpin killed him. After Barry was tried he removed to 
Hartford, now in Ohio county, and Mr. Hardin followed him to that 
place as the best chance then in Kentucky to obtain an education, at 
least a knowledge of the dead languages. Having completed his edu- 
cation, he commenced the study of law under Gen. Martin D. Hardin 
on the first day of April, 1804, at Richmond, in Madison county, Ken- 
tucky. At the April term of that court he became acquainted with 
William T. Barry, Samuel Woodson, George M. Bibb, John Pope and 
William Owsley. 

According to Mr. Hardin's account of himself, he was humble and 
obscure. He had been an ambitious stiident and was of slender build, 
with very little flesh, so much so that his comrades called him "Tushy 
Works," but in after life when fortune smiled upon him he became 
stouter and exhibited quite an imposing appearance, his critics then 
respecting him, for which he was much gratified, and the friendships 
thus formed lasted until his death with Berry, Pope, Woodson and Bibb. 
Not so with Owsley. On April i, 1805, he returned to Bardstown and 
studied law under Felix Grundy. In June, 1806, he obtained his law 
license. 

The fact that he commenced his law studies in April, 1804, acquired 
a thorough knowledge of ancient history, and laid the foundation for 
one of the most profound lawyers in Kentucky or elsewhere, got mar^ 
ried to a ^liss Barbour and removed to Elizabethtown and was sworn 
in as an attorney in July, 1806, is proof sufficient that he was a hard 
student. 

Mr. Hardin resided in Elizabethtown not quite two years. A man 
named William Bray, Hying in the upper end of Hardin county, killed 
a man and was charged with murder. Some friends of the accused 
came to town and employed Mr. Hardin to defend Bray, and were 

187 



free to inform him that they wished him to take charge of the case until 
the big lawyers came down from Bardstown. Those few words de- 
cided the case with Mr. Hardin. He went to his place of residence and 
told his wife to pack up with all speed and moved to Bardstown, for 
he never would be called a great lawyer until he did so, and before 
Bray was indicted at the spring term, 1808, Mr. Hardin was a resident 
of Bardstown, Kentucky, and remained so until his death. 



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